Specimen samples of Crook County montmorillonite and Silver Hill illite, purified and prepared in the Na-form, were imaged under 80% relative humidity using an atomic force microscope. The direct images showed clearly the hexagonal array of hexagonal rings of oxygen ions expected for the basal planes of 2:1 phyllosilicates. Fourier transformation of the digital information obtained by the microscope scanning tip led to an estimate of 5.1 ± 0.3 Å for the nearest-neighbor separation, in agreement with the ideal nearest-neighbor spacing of 5.4 Å for hexagonal rings as derived from X-ray powder diffraction data. The atomic force microscope should prove to be a useful tool for the molecular-scale resolution of clay mineral surfaces that contain adsorbed macromolecules.
