The use of empirical force fields is now a standard approach in predicting the properties of hydrated oxides which are omnipresent in both natural and engineering applications. Transferability of force fields to analogous hydrated oxides without rigorous investigations may result in misleading property predictions. Herein, we focus on two common empirical force fields, the simple point charge C...

Self-assembled lamellar silica-surfactant mesophase composites have been prepared with crystal-like ordering in the silica frameworks using a variety of cationic surfactant species under hydrothermal conditions. These materials represent the first mesoscopically ordered composites that have been directly synthesized with structure-directing surfactants yielding highly ordered inorganic framewor...

Polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites have generated great interest due to their improved thermal, mechanical and gas barrier properties compared to conventional composites or neat polymers. Since the surface of most polymers is usually hydrophobic and layered silicate nanoparticles are completely hydrophilic, interactions between them are not favourable. Thus, the first step in the direction...

New high-resolution spectral and morphologic imaging of deposits on walls and floor of Ius Chasma extend previous geomorphic mapping, and permit a new interpretation of aqueous processes that occurred during the development of Valles Marineris. We identify hydrated mineralogy based on visible-near infrared (VNIR) absorptions. We map the extents of these units with CRISM spectral data as well as...

Exfoliation through an ionic exchange reaction of layered silicate clays, including synthetic fluorinated mica (Mica) and natural montmorillonite (MMT), were achieved by using polyvalent amine salts as the intercalating agents. The requisite polyamine was synthesized from the epoxy/amine coupling reaction, involving a trifunctional poly(oxypropylene)-triamine (ca. 440 g/mol Mw) and diglycidyl e...