The dehydration of hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA)- exchanged montmorillonite has been studied using X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The dehydration in HDTMA-montmorillonite seems to influence the swelling be...
The dehydration of hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA)- exchanged montmorillonite has been studied using X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The dehydration in HDTMA-montmorillonite seems to influence the swelling behavior of the organo-clay during heating. The basal d(001) spacing vs temperature curve of the HDTMA-montmorillonite has one broad swelling edge with a shoulder on the low-temperature side. We believe that the shoulder at 100℃ for the HDTMA-montmorillonite is due to interlayer swelling induced by the initial rearrangement of surfactants, and the second edge at 200℃ is caused by interlayer swelling resulting from the secondary vertical reorientation of alkyl chains. It seems that the dehydration of organo-clay induces a reorientation of the alkyl chains by transition to more vertical position relative to the silicate sheets. allowing instantly greater d-spacing.