Alteration of the properties of bentonite by reaction with amines

Introduction. T HE affinity between certain organic compounds and clays has been known for many years. Lloyd 1 reported the adsorptive capacity of fuller's earth for alkaloids in 1916 without theorizing extensively about the mechanism. Smith 2 reacted organic bases and their salts with bentonite and presented evidence that the reaction was one of baseexchange or metathesis, while tIauser a has discovered that certain organic compounds of bentonite have t he property of swelling and dispersing in organic liquids. This paper reports observations on the rather striking conversion of bentonite from the hydrophilie to the organophilie condition and proposes a mechanism to explain the observed phenomena.