Abstract
The anomalous swelling of the vermiculite and montmorillonite clays is a long-standing problem in the field of colloid stability and is of great environmental importance. Suspensions of clay particles in aqueous electrolyte can be studied. These clay particles are made up of one dimensional stacks containing up to several hundred parallel sheets of diameter about 10−6 m and thickness 10−9 m. These stacks are observed to swell, that is, the average spacing between the plates increases when the concentration of electrolyte is decreased. It has been possible to measure both the average swelling of a stack of plates and the plate-plate distribution function W(L) as functions of electrolyte concentration by scattering X-rays through low angles1.
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PERRAM, J., SMITH, E. Statistical Mechanics and the Anomalous Swelling of Aluminosilicate Clays. Nature Physical Science 241, 133 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/physci241133a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/physci241133a0