Comparative study of the effects of thermal and mechanical treatments on the structures of clay minerals

Abstract

Controlled heating (in air) of clay minerals leads to transformations into disordered structures and recrystallization into new phases at high temperatures. These phase transformations are of topotactic nature. On the other hand, prolonged dry-grinding treatments of the same silicates causes structural amorphization with no recrystallization into new phases. The mechanical energy relaxation mechanism, invoked to explain these differences, accounts for the particle size changes and the large growth of dislocations. The latters affect sensibly the reactivity of the materials submitted to such solid-state treatments.

These processes are monitored mostly by XRD, DTA and IR spectroscopy. The latter method allows to study in some silicates submitted to progressive grinding the location and nature of OH groups and water molecules.