The exploitation of thermal water as a heat source in houses and apartments (during winter) is a widely used alternative to natural gas. However, this type of water may contain organic contaminants, which must be removed before releasing the used water into rivers and lakes. Because of the presence of a wide range of pollutants (including phenolic compounds and humates), efficient, cheap remova...

This research compared the influence of (1) dissolution of iron oxides and (2) alteration of electrostatic interactions on the mobilization of colloids in a clayand iron oxidecoated sand obtained from an Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer in which colloids have been found suspended only in anoxic groundwater. The sediment was flushed with solutions of varying ionic strength, pH, and reductant and s...

The hydrolysis of hemicellulosic oligosaccharides (OS) was investigated using acid-activated clays (prepared from natural Porto Santo montmorillonite clay) as catalysts. Acid activation was performed in HCl solution or with aluminium exchange. The clay catalysts were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption isotherms, CEC, FTIR, titration of acid sites in water and adsorption of sugars and disacchar...

The aim of the current research is to examine the potential of locally available natural clay mineral to act as an effective absorbent for waste engine oil treatment. The clay mineral was collected from the southern region of Saudi Arabia and was used without any kind of surface modification. The clay mineral was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XPS) and Braunner-Em...

Palygorskite clay has been investigated as low cost and ecofriendly adsorbent for the removal Basic Red 2(BR-2) from aqueous solution. Batch adsorption studies are carried out by observing effect of amount of adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, initial concentration of ( BR-2) and particle size of adsorbent on the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent were studied. Adsorption data fits the Langmui...

Recently, Supercritical fluids have been used in material synthesis and processing because of their special properties such as high diffusivity, low viscosity, and low surface tension. Supercritical carbon dioxide is the most attractive because it is non-toxic, non-flammable, and has moderate critical temperature and critical pressure. Moreover, and can also swell most polymers. In this study, ...

Measurements of natural cosmogenic Si (t1/2 ~ 140 years) in tropical deltaic sediments demonstrate for the first time that most Si is present in rapidly formed authigenic clays and not biogenic opaline silica (bSi). The burial of bSi in deltaic and continental margin sediments has likely been greatly underestimated because of diagenetic alteration of bSi to clay, little of which dissolves in th...

Attapulgite (ATP), not only as a type of natural and low cost silicate clay mineral but also as a high quality nanosized material with large surface area, layered and lath-like structure, has been found to have a wide variety of industrial applications. The ideal composition of ATP is Mg5Si8O20(OH)2(OH2)4. However, according to previous reports from different countries in the world, it is very ...

Bio-inspired Laponite (clay)-liquid crystal (LC) polymer composite materials with high clay fractions (>80%) and a high level of orientation of the clay platelets, i.e. with structural features similar to the ones found in natural nacre, have been shown to exhibit a promising behavior in the context of reduced oxygen transmission. Key characteristics of these bio-inspired composite materials ar...