Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
The cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a characteristic property of expandable clay minerals, such as smectites and vermiculites. The aim of this work was to examine the cation exchange behavior of vermiculite using the Cu-triethylenetetramine (Cu-trien) CEC method and the influence of mechanical and chemical pretreatment, with the ammonium acetate method serving as a reference. The Cu-trien method makes rapid and direct CEC measurements possible. Three different kinds of mill were used to grind a vermiculite sample from Russia, in order to reduce the particle size to <10 µm. The Netzsch CGS 10 dry mill reduced the particle size more effectively than the other grinding methods. Chemical pretreatments were used to remove carbonates, organic matter, Fe oxides, and divalent exchangeable cations from vermiculite samples prior to CEC measurements. Subsamples of ground and chemically pretreated vermiculite samples were saturated with Na, Li, Mg, Ca, and Cu cations to determine the effect of exchangeable cations on measured CEC values. Chemical pretreatment, monovalent cation pretreatment, and 48 h of shaking time were needed to measure vermiculite CEC values effectively using the Cu-trien method.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.