Thermal properties of some Egyptian kaolin pastes for pelotherapeutic applications: Influence of particle geometry on thermal dosage release

Abstract

Abstract The present study aims to evaluate the potentiality of 7 selected structural highly ordered kaolinite-rich samples from Egyptian Carboniferous sedimentary deposits (located at Abu Zenima district, west central Sinai peninsula) to use them in medicinal semisolid formulations as peloids. The effect of particle geometry and kaolinite crystallite size are studied to check their influence on thermal dosage performance. The studied samples exhibit a variable mineralogy. Kaolinite is the main constituent (ranging from 81 to 94%), followed by quartz (up to 14%), lesser amounts of anatase and halite, and traces of hematite, magnetite, alunite and gypsum. The kaolinite order “Hinckley Index” varies from 1.28 to 1.50. 1:1 (w/w) kaolin mud pastes were prepared with purified water in Eppendorf tubes using a touch vibration vortex mixer for 2 min. The cooling kinetics of pastes were measured by using a differential scanning calorimetry equipment (Shimadzu DSC-50Q). Specific heats were calculated, following Cara et al. (2000). The granulometry and geometric surface area were measured by laser diffraction (Mastersizer 2000LF, Malvern Instruments) in the range 0.02 and 1500 μm. All analyzed samples showed a clear predominance of particles under 4 μm (ranging from 82 to 94%), with median size (D50) ranging from 0.93 to 1.35 μm. The heat retention time during cooling from 50 °C to 32 °C reached up to 30.82 min, oscillating around an average of 28.72 min, and the temperature corresponding to the minimal dosage time (T20) was not exceed below 34.7 °C. A good correlation (R2 = 0.875) was found between heat retention time and specific heats. There is no correlation between kaolinite content and thermal properties, but R2 values around 0.6 are found with granulometry (finer the particles, greater the heat retention time t32 and the specific heat). Even if sample H5 (Gabal Hazbar deposit) is not the richest in kaolinite, it exhibits the best thermal dosage performance, in accordance with the granulometry (D50 = 0.93 μm), and geometric surface area (3.73 m2/g).