CHARACTERIZATION OF CLAYS AND ALUMINUM PILLARED CLAYS BY ADSORPTION OF PROBE MOLECULES

Aluminium pillared clays (PILCs) from three different starting materia ls namely two Portuguese clays from Benavila (Alentejo) and Porto Sant o (Madeira archipelago) and a Wyoming SPV-200 clay were obtained. A ch aracterisation of the textural and some surface chemistry properties o f the starting materials and PILCs was made using the adsorption of di fferent probe molecules (water, ethylene glycol, nitrogen, n-hexane, c yclohexane, triethylamine) and also by other routine techniques. The a dsorption of probe molecules was also employed to characterise the mic roporosity of the obtained PILCs. The effect of freeze-drying on PILCs texture was also discussed and related with the size of the clay part icles.