Polymer/clay nanocomposites have been under an extensive investigation for about 15 years. Traditional methods to modify the clay are usually limited to small organic cations, preferably containing long alkyl chain(s), which are exchanged with the inorganic cations in the clay gallery. This article provides a comprehensive review on the strategies for clay modification using polymeric surfactan...

When woody plant abundance increases in grasslands and savannas, a phenomenon widely observed worldwide, there is considerable uncertainty as to whether aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and ecosystem carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools increase, decrease, or remain the same. We estimated ANPP and C and N pools in aboveground vegetation and surface soils on shallow clay and clay loam so...

Boom clay has been selected as a potential host rock formation for the geological disposal of radioactive waste in Belgium. In the present work, the hydro-mechanical behaviour of Boom clay samples from the borehole Essen-1 at a depth of 220-260 m and from HADES that is the underground rock laboratory at Mol in Belgium, at 223-m depth was investigated in the laboratory by performing low pressure...

A High Cation Exchange Capacity (HCM) montmorillonite clay has been prepared by acetate treatment of Zenith clay. The HCM has been evaluated for metal-uptake from aqueous solutions. The present data show that the cation exchange sites can play a significant role in the adsorption of metals in smectite clays. A theoretical analysis scheme has been developed which shows that permanent-charge site...

This mini-review article addresses the development in synthesizing polyolefin/clay nanocomposites by olefin polymerization under catalysis of clay intercalated precatalysts in recent years. The review comprises three parts which focus on mainly the synthetic route, structural characterization, and properties of polyolefin/clay nanocomposites, respectively. Moreover, outlook for future research ...

A plate-plate binary colloid system of photocatalytically active titanate and inert clay nanosheets shows macroscopically separated multiphase coexistence. Two liquid crystalline phases and one isotropic phase coexist at high titanate and low clay concentrations whereas the colloids are destabilized at high clay concentrations.

The addition of inexpensive montmorillonite clay to a silicone resin employed as preceramic polymer was found to be advantageous for the production of SiOC glass matrix composites. Dense SiOC based monoliths were achieved with the addition of a substantial amount of calcined clay (30 wt.%) to the preceramic polymer; these composites exhibited remarkable hardness and fracture toughness, higher t...

To gain insight into the process of sedimentation occurring when clay-laden estuaries and deltas entermarinewater, we perform laboratory experiments tomeasure the settling rate of initially unflocculated kaolin clay in fresh and salt water. In fresh water, sedimentation is a slow process with the clay particle concentration gradually decreasing nearly uniformly over hours, consistent with the t...

Clayey soil found in coal mines in Appalachian Ohio is often sold to landfills for constructing Recompacted Soil Liners (RSL) in landfills. Since clayey soils possess low hydraulic conductivity, the suitability of mined clay for RSL in Ohio is first assessed by determining its clay content. When soil samples are tested in a laboratory, the same engineering properties are typically expected for ...

The desirable physical and physiochemical properties of clay minerals have led them to play a substantial role in pharmaceutical formulations. Clay minerals like kaolin, smectite and palygorskite-sepiolite are among the world's most valuable industrial minerals and of considerable importance. The elemental features of clay minerals which caused them to be used in pharmaceutical formulations are...