Effect of activation temperature on surface basicity of natural aluminosilicates
Authors: Novikova Lyudmila A. , Khodosova Natalia A. Natalia A. , Belchinskaya Larissa I. , Roessner Frank 
Published: March 2021

Montmorillonite and nontronite are layered aluminosilicates of smectite group minerals widely demanded in many industries owing to their unique physical-chemical and other properties. By thermal activation of raw clays there are variations in their porosity, surface area and physical-chemical properties, including formation and redistribution of surface active site of acid-base or redox character. The aim of present studies included investigation of the effect of thermal activation on the character of distribution and a number of basic sites on the surface of natural layered aluminosilicates by means of the new method of inverse thermoprogrammed desorption of СО2.

Samples of natural aluminosilicates rich in montmorillonite (Montmorillonite 67%, illite 5%, quartz 5%, feldspars 21%) and nontronite (nontronite 70%, illite 10%, kaolinite 5%, quartz 10%, feldspars 8%) were characterized by XRD, XRF, BET N2 adsorption techniques. To probe surface basicity and determine the number of basic sites a new iTPD-CO2 was used. Prior the iTPD-CO2 measurement 100 mg of a sample was activated at 200, 300, 400oC, then cooled down and loaded with CO2 (3ml/min flow rate of CO2 for30 min). Next, the reactor was flushed by 5 ml/min N2-flow to desorb weakly sorbed CO2. The iTPD-CO2 profiles were recorded within 20-800oC at a 20oC/min heating rate and treated using ChemStation software.

The experimental profiles of CO2 desorption for Mt and Nt samples observed two temperature regions. Low temperature peaks evolved around 80-90oC for Mt and between 110-127oC for Nt were most likely related to the weak basic sites, whereas high temperature peaks around 510 and 620oC for Mt and above 320oC for Nt testified to stronger ones. The reasoning of the obtained iTPD-profiles was done considering thermal behavior of layered aluminosilicates.

The total basicity of Nt and Mt samples was 359.2 and 209.9 mmol/g respectively. The 1.6 times higher basicity of Nt was, obviously, caused by its phase and chemical composition and developed surface area and porosity. At higher activation temperatures the number of weak basic sites related to hydroxyl groups of adsorbed water molecules gradually decreased, namely, by 21 times for Mt and by 2.8 times for Nt.

Dehydroxylation of structural Al-OH, Fe-OH, Mg-OH above 200oC, which becomes irreversible above 300oC, provided formation of residual oxygen atoms and their contribution to population of stronger basic sites. In accordance with thermal behavior of dioctahedral smectites, is assumed that strong basic sites of Mt are trans- and cis-vacant Al-OH groups dehydroxylating correspondingly at ~550 and 650oC. Fe-rich sample of Nt rapidly lost hydroxyls at rather lower temperatures that resulted in more heterogeneous distribution of strong basic sites of varying strength. At higher activation temperatures the ratio of stronger sites number to weak sites increased from 23 to 200 for Mt, whereas for Nt this ratio varied between 54-67 times. In general, total basicity of Mt and Nt decreased by 2.2-2.3 times as a result of their dehydration and dehydroxylation by thermal activation. The normalized values of basicity per unit surface area (BΣ/S, mmol/m2) were 1,5 times higher for Mt surface, testifying to higher occupancy and density of active sites for Mt than that of Nt.