Polynuclear Al13 tridecamer species are the major hydrolyzed species of aluminum, but their occurrence in terrestrial environments has not been established. X-ray diffraction (XRD), 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses show that the presence of tartaric acid (concentration range of 10−5–10−3 M), one of the commonly occurring low-molecular-weight organic acids, inhibits the formation of the Al13 tridecamer species.

In the absence of tartaric acid, the basic aluminum sulfate crystals were of tetrahedral morphology and conformed to isometric symmetry with a = 17.748 Å and space group of P4232. Increasing amounts of tartaric acid [tartaric acid/Al molar ratio (R) ranging from 0.01 to 0.05] modified the crystal morphology from the tetrahedral particles of isometric symmetry (R = 0) to rod-shaped particles of monoclinic symmetry (R = 0.01) to irregularly shaped X-ray noncrystalline microparticles (R = 0.05). Failure to detect the presence of Al13 tridecamer, the dominant hydrolyzed species of aluminum, in terrestrial environments may be partially attributed to the presence of low-molecular-weight organic acids, which inhibit the formation of Al13 tridecamer species.

We report the first application of 39K solid-state NMR to the study of tecto- and phyllosilicates. Under high field (11.7 Tesla) and with the application of a spin-echo sequence, informative 39K spectra can be obtained for several compounds of interest to the geologist and the agronomist. Tectosilicates and phyllosilicates can be distinguished from the uncorrected frequency (δCG) of the observed NMR peak. A series of montmorillonites submitted to increasing numbers of wetting and drying cycles was studied in order to discriminate between mobile and “fixed” forms of K+: when the spectra are run on hydrated samples, two different signals are observed corresponding to K+ in different hydration states, and NMR data can be correlated with the amount of exchangeable K+ measured by ion exchange. Thus, it appears that NMR can provide useful information on K fixation complementary to classical chemical methods.

Lode, a dioctahedral illite-rich clay from Latvia belonging to the mica group of clay minerals, undergoes thermal transformation via a series of structurally disordered intermediate phases. Despite containing high levels of paramagnetic Fe substituted into the octahedral sites, 29Si and 27Al magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) spectra of sufficient quality are obtained to resolve different structural units, showing clearly defined structural changes which occur in the sample during calcination to 1200 °C. However, Fe plays a significant role in broadening the Al signal, with integrated peak intensities decreasing as temperature increases. Significant differences are revealed in the thermal decomposition process by NMR spectra between pyrophyllite, Ca-montmorillonite and illite clays, possibly due to the different cations present in the interlayer. It has also been shown for illite that no structural differences at the atomic level occur when the dwell time at a particular temperature is varied and no difference is observed between samples that have different thermal histories; however, a minor effect of particle size and surface area is visible in the NMR data.

The Al13 polycation is the predominant hydroxy-Al species in partially neutralized solutions. However, the existence of the Al13 species and the factors governing its formation in terrestrial environments still remain obscure. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of pyrogallol, a common polyphenol in soils, on the formation of Al13 tridecamer. Hydroxy-Al solutions with an OH/Al molar ratio of 2.2 (pH 4.53) at pyrogallol/Al molar ratios of 0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 were prepared and mixed with 0.5 M sodium sulfate to form aluminum sulfate precipitation products. The solid-state 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of the precipitates show that the pyrogallol perturbed the formation of Al13 tridecamer species as indicated by the decrease in the intensity of resonance peak, observed at 62.5 ppm, with increase in the pyrogallol/Al molar ratio. The crystallization of the precipitated Al sulfates was also hampered by pyrogallol, resulting in the formation of X-ray non-crystalline products at a pyrogallol/Al molar ratio of 0.50. The absorbance at 465 and 650 nm of the hydroxy-Al-pyrogallol solutions, the C coprecipitated, the electron spin resonance and 13C CPMAS-NMR spectra of the precipitates indicate the concomitant enhanced abiotic humification of pyrogallol by the X-ray amorphous Al species.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) provides a powerful tool to describe local nuclear environments. In this work, unique structural information on kaolinite and on kaolinite dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) intercalate were provided by solid-state 1H and 27Al magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR. The interlayer chemistry of kaolinite (K) was examined by intercalating a select group of highly polar organic molecules or salts into kaolinite as a first step. Once the interlayer space is expanded, the intercalated compounds can be replaced in a second step. Intercalating DMSO into kaolinite to form the DMSO-K intercalate is, thus, a particularly useful first step toward the intercalation of a large variety of molecules, including polymers and ionic liquids. Well developed characterization methods are essential to define the structural modifications of kaolinite, and MAS NMR is a useful complement to other techniques. The use of 1H and 27Al MAS NMR for this purpose has been relatively rare. 1H NMR, nevertheless, can give unique information about kaolinite hydroxyls. Because quadrupolar interactions are sensitive to the local octahedral Al(III) geometry, solid-state 27Al NMR can follow subtle structural modifications in the octahedral sheet. In the present work, the 1H MAS NMR chemical shifts of KGa-1b were unambiguously attributed to the internal surface hydroxyls at 2.7 ppm and to the internal hydroxyls at 1.7 ppm. The 1H MAS NMR chemical shifts of the two methyl groups in DMSO-K are not equivalent and can be attributed to the 2.9 and 4.2 ppm peaks. The 27Al MAS NMR spectra of KGa-1b obtained under different magnetic fields revealed that most of the quadrupolar effects were highly reduced at 21.1 T, whereas the spectra at lower field, 4.7 T, were dominated by quadrupolar effects. The two octahedral Al(III) sites are not equivalent and can be distinguished in the low-field spectral simulation. Increased quadrupolar constants were observed and showed the major perturbations of the local Al symmetry that resulted from DMSO intercalation. Both the 1H and 27Al MAS NMR studies at different magnetic fields afforded important information about the local environments of the kaolinite hydroxyl groups and structural Al(III).

The fluorine route is thoroughly investigated for the hydrothermal synthesis of montmorillonite in the Na2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O system. Using the optimal conditions suggested by Reinholdt et al. (2001) for the crystallization of pure montmorillonites with the formula Na2x(Al2(1-x)Mg2x☐)Si4O10(OH)2, several parameters (x, Mg content, duration of crystallization, F/Si atomic ratio, pH, nature of counterbalance cation) are varied independently from their ideal values. The products are analysed by various techniques (X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis-differential thermal analysis, 29Si, 27Al and 19F magic angle spinning-nuclear magnetic resonance). It appears that a pure montmorillonite can only be obtained within a narrow x range (0.10 ≤ x ≤ 0.20). The presence of F in the starting hydrogel and the crystallization time also have significant effects on the purity of the final products. It is shown that a small amount of fluorine is needed for the crystallization of pure montmorillonite phyllosilicates.