Study on the preparation and characterization of aluminum-pillared clays using montmorillonite k10

Aluminum-pillared interlayered clays (Al-PILCs) were synthesized under various experimental conditions starting from commercial montmorillonite K10 (K10-Mt). The pillaring process involves several steps that are easy realized in laboratory. The effect of montmorillonite/NaCl solution mass ratio for cationic exchange, OH/Al molar ratio and the aging time of pillaring solution on physico-chemical properties and thermal stability of Al-PILCs were examined in this paper. The synthesized nanomaterials were characterized by textural analysis: specific surface area (using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Langmuir methods), micropore volume and micropore area by t-plot method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to determine the basal distance and mineralogy of the materials. The modified clays were characterized by thermal analysis using thermogravimetric (TGA) and differential thermal (DTA) analysis. The specific surface area values, the basal spacing and the thermal stability of the Al-PILCs were affected by the synthesis parameters. The modified products are intended to be used for the adsorption of organic pollutants from wastewater.