Grafting of methanol in dickite and intercalation of hexylamine

The knowledge regarding the synthesis of new organic derivatives with controlled morphology on the basis of kaolin group minerals is increasing. Apart from kaolinite, new materials were obtained using halloysite. However, organic derivatives of dickite are not well known. In this study dickite was tested in a grafting reaction with methanol and also an intercalation of hexylamine was performed. As a precursor dickite–dimethyl sulfoxide complex was used. The results confirmed the possibility to modify the interlayer octahedral surface of dickite with methoxyl groups by low temperature grafting with methanol. This methoxy-modified mineral was intercalated with hexylamine. The approximate model of the new intercalate was proposed on the basis of XRD and IR data. Deintercalation of the hexylamine led to a delamination of dickite particles and subsequent formation of mineral nanotubes by rolling of the dickite layers. As a consequence, the measured specific surface area and total pore volume increased significantly in comparison to the raw dickite.