Aim and Objective:
This paper aims to reveal the useful industrial aspects of kandite
and montmorillonite group of clays using as a catalyst after acid activation. A comparative study of
modified characteristics of clay samples has been explored based on industrial requirements.
Materials and Methods:
In this study sodium bentonite and kaolin clay have been focused. The
modified characteristics of clay samples are investigated by characterization methods of FT-IR,
XRD, SEM/EDAX, TGA and DSC before and after treated with 4M of Hydrochloric acid. Clay
samples were refluxed at 105ºC and calcined at 500ºC consecutively for 3 hours at room
temperature.
Results:
Maximum crystalline size 104.02 nm has been evaluated for acid-activated sodium
bentonite. Alkyl halides compounds have a strong band position for all samples and have more
extent on acid activation. The small numbers of manganese particles have been noticed in the acidactivated
samples. 14% of decrement and 61.02% of increment of aluminates have been found
respectively for acid-activated kaolin and acid-activated sodium bentonite.
Conclusion:
The novelty of this study is about sodium bentonite characterization and the results
show the prominent behaviour with structural, elemental, morphological, and thermal analysis.
Acid-activated kaolin sample has less effect in comparison with acid-activated sodium bentonite.
As the removal of the hydroxyl group of compounds has been reported through FT-IR and XRD
analysis also some other industries like ceramic and paper industries may have accepted these
types of modified minerals for special production with a simple process.
