From this investigation it was hoped to obtain information about the position of the exchangeable cations. That they take up a position between the layers of the mineral seems obvious from the varying c spacing of dried montmorillonite saturated with different ions, but in the complexes with water and organic liquids it was not known whether the ions remained close to the layers or were removed from them. It was also hoped that the Fourier syntheses would give some information about the actual layer structure of the mineral (montmorillonite) and thereby lend support to one of the two suggested structures, those of Hofmann, EndeU and Wilm on the one hand and of Edelman and Favejee on the other.

The montmorillonite used was a sample of Wyoming bentonite separated on the Sharples supercentrifuge. In order to get as large a contrast as possible between the two syntheses it was decided to use Li+-saturated montmorillonite and Ti+-saturated montmorillonite.