Thermodynamic assessment of the variation of the surface areas of two synthetic swelling clays during adsorption of water

Sébastien Lantenois (1) , Y. Nedellec (1) , Bénédicte Prélot (1) , J. Zajac (1) , Fabrice Muller (2) , J.M. Douillard (1)

1 ICGM ICMMM - Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux de Montpellier
2 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans

Two synthetic smectites (montmorillonite and beidellite) are studied by a water adsorption technique in order to assess their specific surface areas under atmospheric conditions. A route recently proposed for extracting the thermodynamic data from experimental adsorption isotherms is used. The variation of the specific surface area during water adsorption is obtained, which can be linked to the enlargement of the interlayer space determined using X-ray diffraction. This variation is compared to an idealized specific surface area obtained from TEM and X-ray measurements in agreement with crystallographic models. All these results are also compared with those obtained previously for a natural montmorillonite. A simple view of swelling is proposed.

Keywords: Montmorillonite; Beidellite; Synthetic smectite; Water; Adsorption; Surface area; Swelling clay; Interlayer space

Domains: Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]

Sébastien Lantenois, Y. Nedellec, Bénédicte Prélot, J. Zajac, Fabrice Muller, et al.. Thermodynamic assessment of the variation of the surface areas of two synthetic swelling clays during adsorption of water. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2007, 316 (2), pp.1003-1011. ⟨10.1016/j.jcis.2007.07.024⟩. ⟨insu-00192533⟩