Clay Mineralogy

Detailed Clay Mineralogy

Identification and quantification of clay mineral species from a rock, sediment or soil sample

The quality of commercial analytical laboratories for the correct identification and quantification of the different clay mineral species in a rock, sediment or soil sample is more than deficient. This is mainly due to the fact that the users need a high level of expertise in the field of clay mineralogy when evaluating X-ray diffraction patterns. In addition, this mineral group has very special structural properties that are difficult to incorporate into numerical modeling. With a university background in the field of clay mineralogy, our customers can rely on the highest quality in the characterisation of clay samples. For a clear identification of individual clay mineral components, various treatments on textured sample specimen are necessary. Compared to other commercial laboratories, AixMinerals offers its customers standardised sample preparation for samples containing clay minerals.

Figure 1: Diffractograms of differently pretreated textured sample specimen of the clay fraction (< 2 µm) of a rock sample. In a direct comparison of air-dried, glycerine-treated and heated to 550 °C textured sample specimen, all clay mineral components can be identified for this sample.

Applications

Clay minerals play an essential role in a variety of industries. The following is a brief overview of the different groups of clay minerals and some of their applications. However, this list only represents a small part of the versatile application possibilities of clay minerals in industry.

Kaolinite-Serpentine-Group:

Ceramic products (e.g. sanitary ceramics, tableware, tiles, roof tiles, high-temperature porcelain, ... )
Filler for rubber products (e.g. car tyres, sealing rings, hoses, cables, ... )

Pyrophyllite-Talc-Group: