Saponite layers

Polarized absorption spectroscopy was used to assess the orientation of PEPy-C18 polymer molecules on ordered saponite layers. Figure 8.8 shows the polarized absorption spectra of PEPy-C18/saponite 32-bilayer films. The relatively large difference in optical... 

The layer width has been determined from atomic parameters of a Mg-vermiculite (13) which may reasonably be compared to a saponite. The value of 9.4 A is very similar to the layer width of talc (14) which is closely related to the saponite layer. 

Smectites are 2 1 charged layered silicates from natural (montmorillonite, hectorite, beidellite, saponite etc.) or synthetic (synthetic fluorohectorites, such as... 

An exception may be Na+-saponite, with a 1.37 nm spacing, which is probably interstratified between the single and double layer of water. 

Because the compositions are basic, the expanding minerals are trioctahedral and they are apparently associated in all facies with chlorite. The occurrence of a regularly interstratified montmorillonite (saponite) -chlorite mineral, corrensite, is typified by an association with calcic zeolites and albite. Temperature measurement in the "hydrothermal" sequences at several hundred meters depth indicate that the ordered, mixed layered mineral succeeds a fully expandable phase between 150-200 C and this ordered phase remains present to about 280°C. In this interval calcium zeolites disappear, being apparently replaced by prehnite. The higher temperature assemblage above corrensite stability typically contains chlorite and epidote. 

Here we report the synthesis and catalytic application of a new porous clay heterostructure material derived from synthetic saponite as the layered host. Saponite is a tetrahedrally charged smectite clay wherein the aluminum substitutes for silicon in the tetrahedral sheet of the 2 1 layer lattice structure. In alumina - pillared form saponite is an effective solid acid catalyst [8-10], but its catalytic utility is limited in part by a pore structure in the micropore domain. The PCH form of saponite should be much more accessible for large molecule catalysis. Accordingly, Friedel-Crafts alkylation of bulky 2, 4-di-tert-butylphenol (DBP) (molecular size (A) 9.5x6.1x4.4) with cinnamyl alcohol to produce 6,8-di-tert-butyl-2, 3-dihydro[4H] benzopyran (molecular size (A) 13.5x7.9x 4.9) was used as a probe reaction for SAP-PCH. This large substrate reaction also was selected in part because only mesoporous molecular sieves are known to provide the accessible acid sites for catalysis [11]. Conventional zeolites and pillared clays are poor catalysts for this reaction because the reagents cannot readily access the small micropores. 

In montmorillonite some of the Al3 + in the octahedral sublattice are replaced by Mg2+ ions, and in hectorite some of the Mg2 + in the octahedral sublattice are replaced by Li+ ions. With beidellite and saponite, however, the isomorphous substitution takes place in the tetrahedral sublattice with Al3 + replacing some of the Si4+ ions. The residual negative charges in the layers on montmorillonite, hectorite, beidellite, and saponite are counterbalanced in the natural state by coexisting interlamellar, hydrated cations, usually Na+,... 

Mixed-layer illite-montmorillonite is by far the most abundant (in the vicinity 90%) mixed-layer clay. The two layers occur in all possible proportions from 9 1 to 1 9. Many of those with a 9 1 or even 8 2 ratio are called illites or glauconites (according to Hower, 1961, all glauconites have some interlayered montmorillonite) and those which have ratios of 1 9 and 2 8 are usually called montmorillonite. This practice is not desirable and js definitely misleading. Other random mixed-layer clays are chlorite-montmorillonite, biotite-vermiculite, chlorite-vermiculite, illite-chlorite-montmorillonite, talc-saponite, and serpentine-chlorite. Most commonly one of the layers is the expanded type and the other is non-expanded. 

Table XXXVIII). Brindley (1955) has suggested that stevensite is a mixed-layer talc-saponite however, Faust et al. (1959) considered it to be a defect structure with a random distribution of vacant sites in the octahedral sheets. A small proportion of domains with few or no vacancies would then be present having characteristics of talc. The layer charge in stevensite is due to an incompletely filled octahedral sheet (Faust and Murata, 1953). This deficiency is minor (0.05—0.10) and the resulting cation exchange capacity is only about one-third that of the dioctahedral montmorillonites (100 mequiv./lOO g.).

Allieti (1956) mixed-layer talc-saponite, Monte Chiaro, Italy. 

Fig.28. The relation of percent octahedral occupancy to RJ+/(R3+ +R2 +) for layer structure and chain structure clays, = saponite = attapulgite x = sepiolite (nine octahedral positions) o = sepiolite (eight octahedral positions).

Veniale, F. and Van der Marel, H.W., 1968. A regular talc-saponite mixed-layer mineral from Ferriere, Nure Valley (Piacenza province, Italy). Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 17 237-254. 

The principal class of swelling clays is smectite. This type of mineral comprises beidellite, hectorite, fluorhectorite, saponite, sauconite, montmorillonite, and nontronite. Smectites can be described merely on the basis of layers enclosing two sheets of silica sandwiching a layer of octahedral A1 or Mg, that is, 2 1 layered clays (see Figure 2.24) where the layer of alumina octahedra is inserted into the two layers of silica tetrahedra. 

The 2 1 layer clays (i.e. with three-sheet layers) include a group of expanding or swelling clays, which comprise the smectites (e.g. montmorillonite, saponite and hectorite) and the vermiculites. The basic structure of a smectite is shown in Figure... 

Both natural clays and their alnminium oxide pillared analogues have also been tested for the catalytic cracking of polyethylene [49-51]. The clays investigated include mont-morillonite and saponite. They possess a layered structure which can be converted into a two-dimensional network of interconnected micropores by intercalation of molecular moieties. In the case of alnmininm pillared clays, these materials show a mild acidity... 

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