Stable, three-dimensionally ordered complexes were formed from synthetically hydrated, highly ordered kaolinite (d(001) = 8.4 Å) and several organic compounds. Removal of the intercalated organic compound by drying or by water washing recovered the 8.4-Å hydrate with its ordered layer stacking essentially unchanged. Some of the complexes were stable for less than a day, whereas others appeared to be stable indefinitely. The compounds that formed ordered complexes were dimethylsulfoxide, formamide, hydrazine-hydrate, 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, ethylene glycol, glycerol, and pyridine. Clay-organic complexes that were prepared from methanol, ethanol, 1- and 2-propanol, acetone, acetic acid, propionic acid, acetaldehyde, N-methylformamide, methylethyl ketone, tetrahydrofuran, and K-acetate were stable only if they were immersed in the intercalating medium and had little or no stacking order.

Many of the organic compounds intercalated by the 8.4-Å hydrate are not known to be intercalated by non-hydrated kaolinite either directly or indirectly. Isolated water molecules appear to be keyed into the ditrigonal holes formed by the basal oxygen of the silicate tetrahedra of the 8.4-Å hydrate. These water molecules, referred to as “hole water,” and fluorine ions that had replaced ~20% of the inner-surface hydroxyls of the 8.4-Å phase sufficiently altered the interlayer bonding to allow an expansion of the inner-layer spaces by a variety of guest molecules. The presence of these guest molecules between the clay layers not only changed the basal spacing and perturbed the infrared (IR) bands arising from the inner-surface hydroxyls, it also shifted the position of the IR band arising from the inner hydroxyl.

Contact angles of glycerol and diiodomethane drops were measured on the surface of kaolin pellets covered with different amounts of dodecylamine chloride (DDACl) to as much as one monolayer. For a glycerol drop, the contact angle changed from 25.7° (bare surface) to 45.4° for the surface precoated with 0.125 monolayer of DDACl, but remained nearly constant above this level up to one monolayer. For a diiodomethane drop, the contact angle changed from 28.6° (bare surface) to 58.1° for one DDACl monolayer precoating. Using these contact angles and a modified Young equation, the dispersive and nondispersive components of the surface free energy of DDACl-covered kaolin were calculated. These data showed that in the extreme case (one monolayer) the dispersive component was reduced by the DDACl from ∼36 mJ/m2 (bare surface) to 25.4 mJ/m2, i.e., the value characteristic for paraffin (25.5 mJ/m2); however, the nondispersive component was not reduced to zero. A minimum value (15.83 mJ/m2) was determined for the sample covered with 0.125 DDACl monolayer (calculated), and a slight increase in the nondispersive component was observed for greater coverages. Such a change of the nondispersive component suggests that, at higher coverages, some adsorbed DDACl molecules were oriented with their polar ends off the surface. Based on the values of the γsfd and γsfn, the work of water spreading was calculated. This work was positive for the bare surface (32.8 mJ/m2) and methanol-treated (36.5 mJ/m2) kaolin surface, but negative for 0.125 DDACl monolayer precoating (-31.1 mJ/m2). It remained essentially unchanged for higher coverages. These data mean that bare and methanol-treated kaolinite surfaces were hydrophilic and that DDACl-treated surfaces were hydrophobic.

Li-bearing smectite minerals occurring as hydrothermal alteration products of magnesium silicate minerals in skarns associated with the Moldova Nouǎ, Romania, porphyry copper deposit were examined by X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and thermal and chemical analyses. Li-bearing smectite containing 0.45–0.50 Li/unit cell is common, whereas smectite containing 0.21–0.33 Li/unit cell is less common. Both materials coexist with talc and kerolite. The Li-bearing smectite minerals (b = 9.111 Å) contains semi-ordered or ordered stacking and is highly crystalline, similar to saponite. After 3-yr storage under laboratory conditions in an air-dried state (RH = 50%) or after heating for 2 hr at 100°, 200°, 300°, or 400°C, the Li-bearing smectite minerals showed charactenstics of a regular 1:1 interstratification of anhydrous and dihydrate layers. Some segregation of the anhydrous, monohydrate, and dihydrate layers was noted.

The amount of Li-for-Mg substitution was found to be close to that in hectorite, and the number of octahedral vacancies was similar to that in stevensite. This Li-bearing smectite apparently formed directly from colloidal suspensions at atmospheric temperature and pressure.

The conversion of Malawi vermiculite into K-vermiculite by treatment with bi-ionic K-Mg solutions of 1 N total ion concentration (KCl and MgCl2 mixed solutions of ionic strength equal to 0.5) was studied by following the 00l X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) reflections. Flakes of Mg-saturated samples were treated at 160°C during 24 hr with bi-ionic solutions, with the K concentration varying from zero to pure 1 N KCl solution. The K-Mg interlayer exchange began at a critical value xK = .0196 (K/Mg = 1/100) of the molar fraction of K in the solution. Above the critical concentration and extending to pure 1 N KCl, the XRD diagrams were characteristic of a 10-Å/14-Å interstratification that had a marked tendency towards regularity. Experiments with KCl and MgCl2 mixed solutions of ionic strength equal to 0.75 and 1.0 showed that the exchange began at the same critical value xK as the experiments with ionic strength equal to 0.5, if the K added was equivalent. X-ray fluorescence analysis further showed that the amount of K adsorbed was proportional to the molar fraction xK and to the proportion of K-saturated layers (10 Å) in the interstratification. To explain the mechanism of this quasi-regular interstratification, a crystallochemical rather than a thermodynamic mechanism is proposed.

The level of adsorption of enantiomeric tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)32+) by seven different smectite samples was found to be controlled by the total surface area of the clay. The level corresponded to one monolayer. The adsorption of the racemic mixture was lower for all samples, being limited to saturation of the clay's cation-exchange capacity. The addition of NaCl increased the adsorption of the racemic Ru(bpy)32+ to the same level as the enantiomers. The dependence on the clay's surface charge density, expected on the basis of the limited face-to-face aggregation model, was not found. The sharp decrease in adsorption of the enantiomers by low charge-density clays and the corresponding sharp increase in adsorption of the racemate by high charge density clays were not observed. These results do not necessarily invalidate the model. The range of negative charges examined may not have been wide enough. Also, charge distribution in smectite is generally not uniform.

Clay-modified electrode research indicates that adsorbed complexes are electroactive if the adsorption sites are clay edges. Interlayer adsorbed complexes may be electroactive if a charge shuttle is added or if interlayer swelling is large. Conductivity of the film towards anionic species depends upon the swelling of the clay, which depends on the electrolyte concentration and speciation. The diffusion coefficients measured by electrochemical experiments agree well with alternative measurements.

Ferrihydrite samples having Si/Fe molar ratios ranging from 0 to 1 were synthesized by the reaction of Fe2(SO4)3 and Na2SiO3 with NaOH to an equilibrium pH of 8.2. Hematite formed by incubating the ferrihydrite (Si/Fe molar ratios ≤0.05) at pH 12.5 and 91°C for 36 hr had a globular morphology. Hematite formed from Si-free ferrihydrite gave infrared (IR) bands at 548, 471, 397, and 337 cm−1, whereas, hematite formed from Si-containing ferrihydrite having 0.001 to 0.05 Si/Fe molar ratios gave broad IR bands at about 550, 450, and 330 cm−1. Ferrihydrite having Si/Fe molar ratios ≥0.10 did not transform to hematite following the aqueous-thermal treatment.

The ferrihydrite samples were thermally treated for 2 hr at consecutive 100°C intervals from 100° to 800°C. The Si-free ferrihydrite transformed at 300°C to poorly crystalline hematite. Transmission electron microscopic analyses indicated that the hematite consisted of aggregates of spheroidal particles of 20–80 Å cross sections. Broad IR bands were observed at 529 and 452 cm−1; however, after heating the sample to 800°C, the particle cross sections increased to about 150–600 Å, and additional IR bands were present at 378 and 325 cm−1. The differences in the IR patterns of hematite formed from ferrihydrite at 300° and 800°C were probably due to increases in particle size and aggregation and improved crystallinity of the hematite particles following the higher temperature treatment. The hematite formed by the thermal transformation of the ferrihydrite having a 0.01 Si/Fe molar ratio was also spheroidal, and IR vibrations were present at about 528 and 443 cm−1. An increase in the temperature of the thermal treatment, however, did not result in additional IR bands.

Differences in the IR vibrations of hematite formed during aqueous- and dry-thermal treatments of the ferrihydrite samples were probably due to differences in the particle size and morphology of the product. The Si content, due to its effect on particle size of the precursor and the prevention of sintering and particle growth of hematite, influenced the IR pattern of the product. Particle morphology and IR spectroscopy may therefore be useful indicators of the precursor of hematite and the conditions of hematite formation in soil.

The prevailing concept that positive-edge to negative-face attraction accounts for the rheological behavior of montmorillonite suspensions at low electrolyte concentration was investigated. In one experiment, Mg2+ released from Na-montmorillonite was measured at several NaCl concentrations; in a second experiment, the viscosity, η, and the extrapolated shear stress, θ, were measured at several clay concentrations, pHs, and NaCl concentrations; and in a third experiment, the absorbance, A, was measured at two wavelengths (450 and 760 nm) at different clay and electrolyte concentrations. The released Mg2+ decreased with increasing NaCl concentration until it became zero at a NaCl concentration between 0.01 and 0.02 M, depending on pH. Thereafter, it increased with increasing NaCl concentration. Both θ and η were highly correlated with the amount of released Mg2+. Also, A remained constant until the NaCl concentration corresponded to that at the minimum of θ. Thereafter, it increased and became linearly related to θ. These results suggest: (1) positive-edge to negative-face interaction cannot solely account for the rheological properties of montmorillonite at low electrolyte concentration, and (2) the release of octahedral Mg2+ from montmorillonite affects θ, because it reduces the negative charge on the particles and, thereby, the repulsive force between them.

Clay mineralogy and petrography of the Early to Middle Eocene succession of the Dammam dome, Saudi Arabia, comprising the Rus and Dammam Formations, were studied using X-ray powder diffraction, light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. These formations consist of alternations of dolomite, dolomitic marl, claystone, and shale. The rocks were deposited and subjected to early diagenetic dolomitization in a shallow, coastal marginal basin characterized by rapid changes in salinity. Palygorskite occurs as interwoven fibrous mats forming fine laminae in shales and as coatings and pore-filling and pore-bridging cements in dolomitic marls. This textural evidence suggests a direct chemical precipitation, mostly post-dating dolomitization. Magnesium concentrations in presence of dolomite was sufficient for palygorskite precipitation; the necessary Si and Al were derived by dissolution of silicates under alkaline conditions. The maximum development of palygorskite was near the top of the Dammam Formation, which was deposited during a marine transgression in the Lutetian. The formation of palygorskite in marginal restricted basins in eastern Saudi Arabia took place during Paleocene-Middle Eocene time and was contemporaneous with similar occurrences in the Tertiary basins of West Africa.

Maps of the electrostatic potentials at the basal plane of talc and pyrophyllite, computed using a two-dimensional Ewald lattice-sum, reveal the effects caused by structural distortion of the phyllosilicate layer. Rotation and tilting of basal tetrahedra in phyllosilicates dramatically perturb the electrostatic potential near the (001) surface. A potential high exists at the center of each six-fold ring of the talc (001) surface. Concerted counter-rotations of basal tetrahedra by 10°, as are typical in pyrophyllite, cause the potential lows above basal oxygens rotated into the ring to overlap, eliminating the ring-centered potential highs. Expansion of the vacant site in dioctahedral minerals tilts the basal tetrahedra by 4° and moves one-third of the basal oxygens about 0.2 Å toward the center of each phyllosilicate layer and away from the (001) surface, thereby producing corrugations of the basal surface. This shift dramatically reduces the contribution of these displaced basal oxygens to the (001) surface potential. Rotation and tilting of basal tetrahedra may influence the arrangement of interlayer water molecules on smectites and other swelling phyllosilicates by the effect that these distortions have on the (001) surface potential.

The feasibility of transforming palygorskite from two localities to smectite hydrothermally at temperatures ranging from 22° to 160°C was investigated in a series of laboratory experiments, in which alkalinity was maintained in the pH range of 11.4 to 12 by adding NaOH. The smectite formed was characterized by chemical, spectroscopic, and electron microscopic techniques. Smectite formed rapidly at > 100°C; the transformation was slow, however, at 22°C. The introduction of MgCO3 accelerated the alteration process, but changes in alkalinity at pH > 12 and the difference in elemental composition of the palygorskite samples did not significantly affect the alteration. A pressure of one atmosphere and a temperature of 22°C were sufficient for some transformation to occur within a few months, provided the alkalinity was maintained close to pH 12. X-ray powder diffraction characterization of the product indicated a smectite, and infrared spectroscopy indicated saponite. The alteration to smectite was appreciable even at room temperature, which suggests that the reaction can take place without any external heating.

Sepiolite from Vallecas-Vicálvaro, Spain, contains 1.3% fluorine. Laser microprobe mass spectrometry of this sepiolite suggests the presence of fragments of (SiO2)nOMgF and (SiO2)nOMgOH, which are typical of the sepiolite structure. During thermal dehydroxylation, the fluorine in this sepiolite is removed simultaneously with OH groups at about 750°C. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) of 19F indicates that the fluorine is located in the interior of the sepiolite structure, probably substituting for OH groups, and is homogeneously distributed. In the Vallecas-Vicálvaro sepiolite, about one of every four OH groups bound to Mg2+ is substituted by fluorine. The kinetics of extraction of Mg2+ and F- ions by acid treatment (1 N HCl) shows a more rapid extraction of Mg2+, with a monotonous decrease of the Mg/F ratio as the extent of extraction increases. These results support the internal location of the fluorine, as suggested by the NMR data.

Weathering of minerals often produces intimate mixtures of reactants and products in a smaller volume than that explored by an electron microprobe. As a result, many microanalyses are difficult to decipher because they are composite analyses of mixtures. A procedure to resolve such microanalyses into their component parts was applied here to data obtained in a study of the weathering of muscovite and biotite in granite gneiss and associated soils. A key element oxide content (K2O, in the examples demonstrated) was plotted against Si/Al ratio for all data. This achieved a spread of points having an external shape depending on the compositions of the pure phases present in the various mixtures analyzed. In all probability, some of the microanalyses consisted of only a single phase, or almost so, and these points were located at or near extremities of the body of data. The aim of subsequent treatment was to encompass the data within boundary curves, each of which corresponded to mixtures of any two of the pure phases present. The chemical compositions of some phases, for example, kaolinite and muscovite, are known, and boundary curves for such mixtures were calculated directly. The compositions of unknown or suspected phases, however, were estimated from the graph of K2O content against Si/Al ratio, in conjunction with graphs of the other element oxide contents plotted against Si/Al ratio. The unknown compositions were subsequently refined by successive approximations. Data in the vicinity of the boundary curves were adjusted for the presence of free iron oxides containing structural Al. Once a satisfactory set of intersecting boundary curves was developed to encompass the data, the compositions of the major phases in each system were obtained, and the diagram of boundary curves was used to estimate the relative proportions of these phases at each point analyzed by the microprobe.

Glauconites in early ankerite concretions, ferroan calcite-cemented sandstones, and uncemented sandstones in the first Wilcox sandstone of the Lockhart Crossing field, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, show a progressive substitution of Fe for octahedral Al with increasing diagenesis. An octahedral Fe content of 0.50 atoms was calculated from glauconite located in early ankeritic concretions. Octahedral Fe averaged 0.60 and 0.90 atoms in later ferroan calcite-cemented sandstone and uncemented sandstone, respectively. Corresponding octahedral Al averages were 1.16, 1.03, and 0.67, respectively. A systematic increase in average interlayer K from 0.49 to 0.54 to 0.61 was also observed, with apparent increases in diagenesis. All element determinations were made with an electron microprobe and recast on an anion equivalent basis to structural formulae based on the O10(OH)2 unit. The clay preserved in the early ankerite concretions was found to be an illite/smectite containing about 20% expandable layers, and the mineral in the glauconite pellets from uncemented areas of the sandstone, an ordered glauconite. “Minus cement” porosities of the sandstone indicate that glauconitization may have taken place at burial depths greater than 0.6 to 1.8 km, but the mechanism for the incorporation of Fe3+ in the glauconite at that depth is not apparent.

A fundamental property of electrostatic potentials is their additivity. This study demonstrates that the electrostatic potential of a negatively charged, cation-substituted phyllosilicate layer can be represented as the sum of two potentials. Viewing cation substitution as a defect, one potential is derived from the atoms in a charge-neutral, unsubstituted layer such as pyrophyllite or talc. The “neutral-layer” potential rapidly decays to zero with distance from the layer and is determined primarily by the atoms in the first two atomic planes parallel to the (001) surface, i.e., the basal oxygens and tetrahedral cations. The second component, characterized as a “defect” potential, is a long-range potential derived from cation-substitution. The model used to compute the electrostatic potentials, a two-dimensional Ewald lattice sum, represents the atoms of a single phyllosilicate layer as point charges.

Clay fractions separated from the A2, B, and C horizons of a soil formed on granite gneiss showed X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) spacings characteristic of trioctahedral illite. The trioctahedral illite was derived from biotite, and its development through various stages of weathering was followed by optical and electron microscopy combined with electron microanalysis. In the initial stages of weathering, Fe2+ within biotite was oxidized, without the loss of much K. During this process, biotite flakes became slightly buckled and fractured. Solutions moved into the damaged flakes leading to chemical weathering and exfoliation along cleavages and angular fractures. Major exfoliation broke up the flakes into segments, which themselves contained minor exfoliations and alterations along cleavage planes. The extent of exfoliation and alteration continued until thinner and shorter segments consisted almost wholly of thin (< 0.25 µm), parallel wafers separated by less compact layers of particles and microaggregates. The segments finally lost their shape and divided into clay-size particles. Parts of the thin wafers had the same chemical composition (and structure) as the original, intact flakes of oxidized biotite. The same parts of wafers retained some of the optical properties of the original biotite, and, when broken down to clay, they produced the XRD spacings of 10 and 1.54 Å, typical of fine-grained, trioctahedral mica (illite).

Na-beidellite, a member of the smectite group, was grown hydrothermally from a gel of composition 0.35Na2O·2.35Al2O3·7.3SiO2 in NaOH solutions at a pH between 7.5 and 13.5, a pressure of 1 kbar, and a temperature of 350°C. The synthetic Na-beidellite was characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, electron microprobe, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The unit-cell parameters of the orthorhombic cell are: a = 5.18, b = 8.96, and c = 12.54 Å. The cation-exchange capacity was determined to be 70 meq/100 g. A maximum of 40 wt. % water was present and reversibly lost by heating to about 55°C. The loss of water caused a decrease of the basal spacing to 9.98 Å. At temperatures ≥600°C, the Na-beidellite started to dehydroxylate, reaching its maximum in the range 600°–630°C. At 1100°C the remaining solid recrystallized to Al6Si2O13 (mullite) and SiO2 (cristobalite).

The dissolution behavior of five noncrystalline oxides, montmorillonite, kaolinite, chlorite, and sepiolite in a basic tiron solution was studied at pH 10.5 and 80°C. The results show that for montmorillonite the concentrations of Al and Fe ions dissolved in the treating solution were diminished because of cation-exchange reactions of the sample in the suspension. To explain these observations, a mass-balance equation for the specified cation in solution was formulated, which consisted of both a dissolution term and an ion-exchange term. The several parameters of this differential equation were fitted to allow the calculated results to represent the experimental findings. Using these values, an equation lacking an ion-exchange term was also solved numerically. Thus, a dissolution curve was described, which would have been obtained had no cation exchange taken place. From these equations, the error resulted from the cation-exchange capacity of samples in chemical dissolution methods can be evaluated. According to this estimation, and assuming the value for a 1-hr treatment, an error of about 15% was determined for the amount of noncrystalline components contained in the specimen in this investigation.