In electric fields, anisodiametric mineral particles in suspension orientate and align. When tagged with fluorescent molecules, the alignment is accompanied by changes in the intensities of the polarized components of the emitted fluorescence. By measuring these changes under specific experimental conditions, any non-random directional coincidence of the absorption and emission transition moments associated with the dye molecules can be evaluated and the spatial array of the dyes estimated. From such measurements, the binding of the optical brightening agent FBA1, a triazinylaminostilbene compound, to sepiolite has been studied.

Centrifugal photosedimentation was used to determine the size distribution of dilute bentonite suspensions as a function of saturating cation. This method is shown to give a better estimate of the effect of saturating cation on tactoid size than the techniques that are currently used. The results indicate that tactoids may occur in preferred size ranges.

Three bentonites, from Bavaria, Wyoming and Brazil, were separated into various fractions. The layer charge was determined by alkylammonium ion exchange and increases with particle size from 0·25 Eq/(Si, Al)4O10 (<0·06 µm) to 0·28 Eq/(Si, Al)4O10 (1–10 µm). The charge density corresponds to an interlayer cation density of 0·75–0·80 mEq/g silicate. Total amounts of 0·90–1·0 mEq of different surfactant cations (dimethyl dioctadecylammonium, trimethyl tetradecylammonium, alkylammonium ions) are bound per gram silicate. The difference between the total and the interlayer amount of surfactant ions decreases with increasing particle size. The amounts exceeding the interlayer CEC are bound at the edges. Tetramethylammonium (TM) ions restrict the interlayer adsorption of long-chain quaternary alkylammonium ions such as trimethyl tetradecylammonium (TMTD) ions, and only monolayers of flat-lying surfactants are formed. A ratio of TMTD and TM is attained which leads to densely packed monolayers of organic ions. The collapsing effect is smaller for tetraethylammonium ions so that considerable amounts of TMTD ions are adsorbed in bilayers. When bentonites are reacted with quaternary alkylammonium ions of technical quality some selectivity is observed according to particle size and layer charge. Smaller particles with lower charge density preferentially bind the longer chain compounds, whereas large particles with higher charge density select smaller sized surfactants.

The adsorption of acrylonitrile (AN) monomer vapour in the interlamellar space of smectites exchanged with different cations (Na or Y or hexylammonium) was monitored and used to yield macromolecular layers. Polymerization in the presence or absence of a free-radical initiator was obtained by heating at 100°C for 72 h. Cyclization can already be obtained at this stage, and is completed by heating the polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-complexes at 220°C for 48 h.

La fixation du toluène et sa polymérisation dans les espaces interfoliaires d'une montmorillonite-Cu(II) au cours de cycles de déshydratation, adsorption, désorption de l'excès de réactif et réhydratation, ont été étudiées. Elles ont été suivies au moyen de diverses méthodes d'analyse (thermogravimétrie, radiocristallographie et spectrophotométrie d'absorption infrarouge). Les résultats rappellent ceux obtenus lors de l'étude du système montmorillonite-Cu(II)-benzène. Ainsi, la fixation du toluène s'effectue selon deux réactions, correspondant l'une à l'adsorption d'une molécule de toluène, l-autre à celle de trois molécules de toluène par ion Cu2+. Toutefois, l'affinité du toluène pour la montmorillonite est supérieure à celle du benzène.

A mild acid attack of the Llano vermiculite produces porous materials suitable for use as cracking catalysts and/or catalysts supports. After HCl attack at 80°C (1 m), the number of acid sites measured by the Hammett indicator method is ∼0·50/nm2, and the specific surfaces are 245 m2/g after calcination at 550°C (4 h), and 55 m2/g after steaming at 750°C (4 h). The performance of leached (1 m HCl) vermiculite has been compared with another hydrocarbon cracking catalyst—γ-Al2O3. The leached vermiculite produces a definite higher conversion and higher C3, C4 and gasoline yields, but much lower coke production. By electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and thermal analysis, it has been shown that the leached vermiculite samples are composed of more or less attacked layers retaining their original platy morphology, and non-crystalline hydrated silica. Chemical analyses indicate that octahedral cations are dissolved first.

The mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the Tirschenreuth and Kohdachi kaolin deposits, which both occur in granite, are compared and the genesis of the deposits discussed. The Tirschenreuth deposit (Rappauf pit) is considered to have formed by weathering because: (i) the kaolinite has formed by the alteration of plagioclase and biotite, whereas microcline and muscovite are unaltered; (ii) the kaolin body has a very homogeneous composition and alteration zones cannot be recognized; (iii) there has been no addition of trace elements from sources other than plagioclase and biotite in the parent rock; (iv) particle-size distribution shows that the kaolinite crystals grew under uniform physical conditions; (v) quartz grains have smooth surfaces.

The Kohdachi deposit contains many clay veins and three alteration zones: (i) halloysite with weak silicification; (ii) halloysite-kaolinite; (iii) kaolinite. Many large dissolution pits were observed by SEM on the surface of quartz crystals from the kaolin zone. Silicification, precipitation of goethite at the border of zones (ii) and (iii), and dissolution of quartz in different areas of the deposit indicate a variable pH within a distance of <100 m. The Cu and Li contents in the <2 µm fractions of the Kohdachi kaolin samples are markedly higher than those at Tirschenreuth. From hydrogen isotopic analysis, the formation temperature of the Kohdachi kaolinite may be roughly estimated at 70–150°C. It is suggested that the Kohdachi deposit formed by hydrothermal alteration.

A series of weathered Paleozoic slates was studied in an area southwest of the Montes de Toledo mountain range where the weathered slates are overlain by a raña formation and show three weathering levels. The fresh slate (at 30 m depth) is composed of ferrous chlorite, mica, quartz and feldspars. In the lowest part of the weathering profile the ferrous chlorite begins to evolve to smectite, and in the intermediate level, all the chlorite has been transformed into smectite. In the upper level (in contact with the raña formation), the smectites evolve to kaolinite, and the micas, which are unaffected at greater depths, begin to evolve to vermiculite, and there has been segregation of the free iron oxyhydroxides producing red, ochre and white zones. Two principal weathering processes, separated in time but superimposed, have been identified.

Diagenetically modified muscovite grains occur as a frequent component of many Upper Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fluvial-deltaic sandstones and siltstones from Britain and the North Sea. Mineralogical, textural and chemical investigation of examples from the Great Limestone Cyclothem show that such grains consist simply of muscovite and kaolinite. No other sheet-silicate phases are involved. Diagenetic textures indicate that modified grains result from the displacive growth of kaolinite between opened cleavage sheets of detrital muscovite. Fabrics of this type should consequently be termed kaolinite-cemented. In contrast to similar sheet-silicate intergrowths reported from diagenetically altered biotite and chlorite, little or no alteration of muscovite is actually required to account for observed textures.

Upper Jurassic claystones of Kimmeridgian-Volgian(-Ryazanian) age are the main source rocks for oil in the Central Trough, North Sea. Drill cuttings and cores from the depth interval 2368–4548 m, the interval from early-mature to peak oil generation, have been investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of ion-milled rock samples, and by HRTEM and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) of dispersed illite-smectite (I-S) mixed-layers isolated from the <0·2 µm fraction. Ordering parameters were determined by XRD profile simulation. TEM on shadowed particles, combined with XRD evidence, showed that dispersed I-S consists of a mixture of 10–70 Å thick particles, whereas HRTEM showed that intact bulk rock was dominated by 50–200 Å thick particles. Disruption, possibly along smectite planes, of the larger particles in the bulk rock formed the thin particles in dispersed I-S. HRTEM showed 20 and 30 Å periodic enhancement in the contrast of lattice fringes in bulk rock samples as well as in dispersed I-S crystals. These features were interpreted as ordered I-S crystals. Indications of disintegration of larger I-S particles during sample dispersion and of the presence of ordered I-S crystals in the intact bulk rock support the layer transformation mechanism for the conversion of smectite to illite.

Chemical, thermal, X-ray and statistical analyses were carried out on the clay fraction of the Bonarelli Horizon (Umbrian region, Central Italy) in order to investigate its origin. The vertical lithological sequence (organic carbon, siliceous and clay layers of varying colour and thickness) seems to change regularly, allowing the horizon to be subdivided into five sub-horizons (A to E). Sub-horizon B is clearly distinguishable from the others on the basis of the clay fractions. The presence of organic material and authigenic sulphates, constant chemical composition within a single sub-horizon, and regular repetition of the layers, show that the Bonarelli Horizon is the result of an alternation of anoxic events in a continental margin facies. A substantial contribution of volcanoclastic material is suggested for sub-horizon B.