Patent ID: 8461245

Claim:
A method for treating clay-bearing aggregates used in construction materials, comprising: introducing to clay-bearing sand aggregates, in an amount of 5% to 60% based on dry weight of clay, at least one copolymer obtained from monomer components (A), (B), and optionally (C), as follows: (A) in an amount of 0.10-0.95 mole, a first monomer selected from quarternized vinylpyridine or other cationic monomer represented by the following structures wherein R 1 , R 2 , and R 3 each independently represent hydrogen, —CH 3 , or —COOH; R 4 , R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , and R 8 each independently represent a C 1 -C 4 alkyl group; R 9 and R 10 each independently represent hydrogen or —CH 3 ; Z 1 represents —O— or —NH—; Y 1 represents —CH 2 CH(OH)CH 2 — or (CH 2 ) n wherein “n” represents an integer of 0 to 6; and X represents a halide, pseudohalide, or sulfate; (B) in an amount of 0.05-0.90 mole, a second monomer represented by the structural formula wherein R 11 , R 12 , R 13 , R 14 , and R 15 each independently represent hydrogen or C 1 to C 3 alkyl; Z 2 represents —O—, —COO—, —OOC—, —COHN—, or —NHCO—; Y 2 represents —(CH 2 ) n — wherein “n” represents an integer of 0 to 6; and “m” represents an integer of 10 to 200; and (C) in an amount of 0-0.20 mole, a third monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate, methacrylate, acrylamide, methacrylamide, alkyl or dialkyl acrylamide, and methacrylamide monomers.