THERMAL-BEHAVIOR OF MONTMORILLONITE PILLARED WITH DIFFERENT METAL-OXIDES

Natural montmorillonite was pillared by various polyhydroxy cations. T he resulting pillared layer clays (PILCs) were characterized by X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared (IR) spectroscopies . The thermal behaviour of Al-PILC was investigated in detail by a com bonation of XRD, derivatography IR spectroscopy and a comparison to na tural montmorillonite is given. It was found that thermal stability of Al-PILC is lower than that of natural montmorillonite. However, heat treatment in the stability region results in significant sintering of natural montmorillonite, while the interlayer spacing of Al-PILC is ha rdly affected.