The fused silicate route to protoimogolite and imogolite

The formation of imogolite from protoimogolite from fused sodium silicate and aluminum perchlorate has been investigated. It is shown that the initial solutions prepared by this method are different from those from hydrolyzed solutions of tetraethoxysilane, so the mechanism of protoimogolite formation is different. Species with isolated silicon tetrahedral (Q33Al) are present much earlier in the fused silicate process than in the tetraethoxysilane reaction. Kinetic studies do show however that once protoimogolite is formed the two reaction mixtures crystallize imogolite in the same way.