Low density composites of sodium montmorillonite and poly(amide-imide) polymers have been created using an ice templating method, which serves as an alternative to the often-difficult foaming of high temperature/high performance polymers. The starting polymer was received in the poly(amic acid) form which can be cured using heat, into a water insoluble amide-imide copolymer. The resulting mater...

Quantitative mineral abundances of lab derived clay–gypsum mixtures were estimated using a revised Hapke VIS-NIR and Shkuratov radiative transfer model. Montmorillonite–gypsum mixtures were used to test the effectiveness of the model in distinguishing between subtle differences in minor absorption features that are diagnostic of mineralogy in the presence of strong H 2 O absorptions that are no...

An aqueous-based microcompartmentalized model involving the integration of partially hydrophobic Fe(III)-rich montmorillonite (FeM) clay particles as structural and catalytic building blocks for colloidosome membrane assembly, self-directed membrane remodeling, and signal-induced protocell communication is described. The clay colloidosomes exhibit size- and charge-selective permeability, and sh...

This study investigates preparation of melamine formaldehyde / montmorillonite nanocomposite coatings and evaluates its abrasion resistance property as a new material for wood based panel products. The ultrasonicated MF resin/clay blends with different clay loadings were applied in the form of coatings to the saturated decorative paper to prepare thermoset prepregs. Morphology and structure of ...

Nearly all muds, in drilling applications, contain smectite clay minerals, such as montmorillonite or hectorite, which have the remarkable property of swelling in the presence of water. Such systems are known to exhibit long-term gelation and thixotropic behavior, of great importance in applications, depending on clay volume fraction, particle properties (origin of the clay, surface charge, etc...

Illite-smectite clay is a new mixed mineral of illite and montmorillonite. The ability of nano illite/smectite clay to remove Pb(II) from slightly polluted aqueous solutions has been investigated. The effects of pH, contact time, initial concentration of Pb(II), nano illite/smectite clay dosage, and temperature on the adsorption process were studied. The nano illite/smectite clay was characteri...

A montmorillonite clay and a palagonitic soil sample were sieved to produce a series of size fractions in order to investigate the role that extremely fine particle sizes play on absorption strengths in martian analog materials. Significant decreases in band strength for both samples were observed as particle size decreased. The less than 5-μm fractions had 1.4-, 1.9-, and 2.2-μm bands that wer...

We have studied optical properties (in optic and petrographic microscopy) of mineral particles (diameter > 1 μm) deposited on the surface of a small (≈ 1.4 mm height, 610 μm wide) sticky tape triangle corresponding to the Face area of the Turin Shroud (TS). All these particles were studied by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and their elemental compositions were analysed by X-ray microfluor...

Manganese is an essential micronutrient for all organisms; however at high concentrations it has a toxic effect. Manganese toxicity is a serious constraint to crop cultivation since it is taken-up by plants and can easily be passed into the food chain again causing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. A fully validated square-wave adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry method has been developed ...

Introduction: The Mars Express OMEGA imaging spectrometer recently identified clay minerals (nontronite and montmorillonite) in several outcrops of Noachian age [1]. Clay minerals usually result from long term alteration of primary minerals by liquid water and on Earth are usually the products of weathering processes. The presence of clay minerals suggests a primary environment completely diffe...