The intercalation of cetyltrimethylammonium cations into muscovite by a two-step process: I. The ion exchange of the interlayer cations in muscovite with Li+

A new method to prepare alkylammonium ions-intercalated muscovite is reported. It has been obtained in a two-step process: the first step is the inorganic ion exchange, which allows the ion exchange of interlayer cations in muscovite with Li+ in a melting condition of LiNO3. It was found that in the LiNO3 treatment process most of the interlayer cations were replaced by Li+, and a large amount of water entered the interlayer space of muscovite. Therefore the spacing of muscovite (001) plane d(001) was enlarged from 19.92 to 24.16 Å, which could allow for the intercalation of organic cations. SEM shows that the LiNO3 treatments have little effect on the size of muscovite platelets. TEM and FTIR confirm that not only the chemical composition but also the structure of the aluminosilicate layer has not been changed by the LiNO3 treatments.