Sodium bentonite and kaolin clays: Comparative study on their FT-IR, XRF, and XRD

Abstract

This study explains the FT-IR, XRF and XRD characterization of commercially available kaolin clay and sodium bentonite clay, potential catalysts for thermo-catalytic pyrolysis in plastic waste valorization. The mineral phase in the presence of chlorite, cristobalite, halloysite, and quartz of kaoline clay was identified by XRD. The FT-IR revealed the functional group of Al O, A1 OH, and Si O. Special peaks of kaolin and sodium bentonite were obtained through XRD and FT-IR spectra. Elemental analysis was done by the XRF. The main elements of kaolin clay, SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , K 2 O, Fe 2 O 3 , and TiO 2 were 45.22%, 38.43%, 0.84%, 0.52%, and 0.269% respectively with rest of impurities. The cation exchange capacity of sodium bentonite was found 0.96 meq g −1 . Commercially available sodium bentonite clay was investigated with a compositional analysis with the kaolin clay. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the sodium bentonite clay as a useful catalyst. Most of the researchers have been used kaolin as the catalyst for pyrolysis of waste plastics to get useful hydrocarbons but sodium bentonite has limited exploration. The experimental study also explains the comparative analysis of kaolin clay and sodium bentonite clay useful for thermo-catalytic waste valorization.