XRD Study of Hydrophlogopite Intercalated with Alkyl Quaternary Ammonium Salt

Abstract

Hydrophlogopite was modified with sodium and then organically intercalated with a series of alkyl quaternary ammonium salts. The organically intercalated samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and the effect of alkyl quaternary ammonium salt on the interlayer spacing of hydrophlogopite was discussed. The results showed that if the same alkyl quaternary ammonium salt was used to intercalate hydrophlogopite, the interlayer spacing of hydrophlogopite increased gradually with the rise of the added amount of quaternary ammonium salt, and that if different quaternary ammonium salts with the same amount were used, the interlayer spacing increased gradually with the rise of the chain length of the alkyl quaternary ammonium salts. For the alkyl quaternary ammonium salts with large chain length (n>10), the inflection point for the increasing interlayer spacing of the intercalated hydrophlogopite is at about 0.5 times of CEC. When octadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide is used as intercalation agent and the added amount is 5 times of CEC, the interlayer spacing of hydrophlogopite is relatively maximal.