Controlled fluorination of clays

The fluorination of clays by a mild fluorinating reagent, HPF6 was investigated using a sample of bentonite. The reaction resulted in the fluorination at the aluminum sites to form octahedral aluminum oxyfluoride species. This led to considerable modification of the surface characteristics such as surface area, porosity and particle size of nano-clay particles. The fluorinated clay was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, XPS, SEM, EDS, infrared spectroscopy and solid-state NMR.