Changes of organo-montmorillonite by ball-milling in water and kerosene

An experimental study has been conducted to evaluate the changes of montmorillonite under various conditions, such as different solvent (water and kerosene), intercalation by mixing and stirred ball-milling. The montmorillonite was prepared from bentonite mined in Taitung, Eastern Taiwan. The final product of exfoliated organic montmorillonite was obtained by treatment in water and kerosene systems. The XRD results show that stirred ball-milling is an effective physical operation for breaking down the size of the clay particles and facilitating the intercalation of ammonium ions. The optimum duration for stirred ball-milling was 6 h in both systems. In water the basal spacing increased gradually from 1.27 nm to 2.41 nm with dodecylammonium ions in the case of mixing and from 3.19 to 4.55 nm for dodecylammonium and hexadecylammonium ions during 2 h of ball-milling, respectively.