Study of Physical, Chemical and Morphological Alterations of Smectite Clay upon Activation and Functionalization via the Acid Treatment

The present study was carried out on the effect of acid leaching on the modification and structure alteration of montmorillonite. A nanostructured, activated material was prepared by selective leaching of pure smectite clay with different concentrations of sulfuric acid (1 - 10 N/L) at 85°C for 120 min using a solid/liquid ratio of 1:20 and a reflux system. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were used for the characterization and study of the acid-treated montmorillonite clay. Chemical structure of specimens was distinguished by FTIR. The results showed that the formation of Si-OH bonds and leaching of Al3+ ions increased progressively with severity of the acid treatment. As the FTIR studies indicated, acid treatment led to the removal of the octahedral Al3+ cations and an increase in the Si-OH bonds. The morphological alteration of the untreated and treated montmorillonite was investigated by using TEM and SEM. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis revealed a considerable decrease in the relative content of Al by increasing the acid strength. Moreover, the XRD results showed that the treatment using highly concentrated acid resulted in the formation of an amorphous silica phase.

Ionic Conductivity in Gelatin-Based Hybrid Solid Electrolytes:The Non-trivial Role of Nanoclay

In this study, the ionic conductivity behavior in hybrid gelatin-based transparent electrolytes including various types of nanoclays with different size, shape and surface properties was characterized. The effects of nanoclay type and nanoclay concentration as well as different experimental conditions, e.g., pH, temperature and crosslinking were also investigated. In general, the impedance spectroscopy results suggested a non- trivial role for nanoclay. Regardless of the nanoclay type, the ionic conductivity slightly increased first and then decreased by increasing the nanoclay concentration. Furthermore, among sodium montmorillonite （Na＋MMT）, lithium montmorillonite （Li＋MMT）, laponite and hydrotalcite, the hybrid electrolytes prepared by Li＋MMT showed higher ionic conductivity. The results also showed that the chemical crosslinking along with sample preparation at optimum pH, where the gelatin chains might be efficiently adsorbed on exfoliated, negatively charged clay nanosheets, plays an important role. In comparison with the ionic conductivity of the neat sample at room temperature （～10-7 S cm-1）, a ten-fold increase was observed for the crosslinked sample containing 2 wt% of Li^＋MMT prepared at optimum pH 3.5. The conductivity behavior as a function of temperature revealed the obedience with the VogeI-Fulcher-Tammann （VFT） model for all samples, suggesting the important role of segmental motions in the ionic conductivity. Finally, a qualitative explanation was presented for the mechanism of the ionic conduction in gelatin-nanoclay hybrid electrolytes.