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Direct High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopic Measurement Of Expandability Of Mixed-Layer Illite/Smectite In Bentonite Rock

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Jan Środoń ,
Cristina Andreoli ,
Françoise Elsass  and
Michel Robert
Jan Środoń
Affiliation:
Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Senacka 3, 31-002 Kraków, Poland
Cristina Andreoli
Affiliation:
Station de Science du Sol INRA, Route de Saint-Cyr, 78000 Versailles, France
Françoise Elsass
Affiliation:
Station de Science du Sol INRA, Route de Saint-Cyr, 78000 Versailles, France
Michel Robert
Affiliation:
Station de Science du Sol INRA, Route de Saint-Cyr, 78000 Versailles, France
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Abstract

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Samples of mixed-layer illite/smectite were investigated from a single bentonite bed zoned with respect to expandability from 90 to 30%. Chips of natural rocks were embedded in a resin, using a procedure designed to preserve the original fabric, cut with an ultramicrotome, and observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). These observations confirmed the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) model of mixed-layer clays, i.e., that illite/smectite grains in natural rocks are built of mixed-layer crystals, from 1 to as many as 15 silicate layers thick (4–6 interlayers per crystal on average). These crystals are present either as individual particles (loose crystals) or, typically, they form nearly parallel face-to-face groupings called here quasi-crystals. Free fundamental smectite and illite particles as defined by Nadeau and coworkers were essentially absent.

Illite and smectite interlayer spacings were 10 and 13.5 Å, respectively. Crystal thickness and number of interlayers were measured for 35–100 mixed-layer crystals per sample. Illite/smectite expandabilities were calculated from these data in two ways: either neglecting the crystal edges or accounting for them. The former determinations agree well with XRD estimates of expandability and the latter, with expandabilities calculated from the distributions of fundamental particle thickness measured by a shadowing technique in the TEM. This result explains the systematic discrepancy between XRD and TEM measurements of illite/smectite expandability.

Keywords

ExpandabilityFundamental particleHigh-resolution transmission electron microscopyIllite/smectiteInterstratification
Type
Research Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , August 1990 , pp. 373 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © 1990, The Clay Minerals Society

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