Nanocomposites of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and date wood fiber were prepared after modification of the host matrix by reactive extrusion grafting of maleic anhydride. Chemical and mechanical treatment of date wood flour (WF) was conducted to obtain nanocrystalline cellulose. Layered silicates (clay) were partially intercalated with date wood fiber, and the modified layered silicate was use...

Maleic anhydride-modified polypropylene was compounded with commercially available surface-modified montmorillonite in a twin-screw extruder. Recompounding ensured the removal of visible tactoids from the extrudate but TEM and XRD techniques showed nonuniform dispersion of clay platelets. In this study, we investigated the mechanical and fracture properties of nanoclayfilled polypropylene. Emph...

Based on the Yishan Metro Station Project of Shanghai Metro Line number 9, a centrifugal model test was conducted to investigate the behavior of stratified settlement and rebound (SSR) of Shanghai soft clay caused by dewatering in deep subway station pit. The soil model was composed of three layers, and the dewatering process was simulated by self-invention of decompressing devise. The results ...

Clay minerals may be si<j'nifieant indieatoi's of earth processes. They form throufrh a range which involves at one extreme the action of compressed water vapor at a temperature of several hundred degrees centigrade, and at the other extreme, the action of atmospheric agencies at an ordinary temperature. Not recognized as original products of magmatic crystallization, clay minerals are prima fa...

BACKGROUND Metalloporphyrin ions, with planar shape, have been known to intercalate horizontally and diagonally between montmorillonite layers. Perpendicular intercalation inside montmorillonite has not been reported earlier. This work aims at achieving perpendicular intercalation inside montmorillonite in natural clays. Possible intercalation inside other forms of natural clay will also be inv...

[1] The role of phyllosilicate fabrics in fault gouge is a poorly understood component of the mechanical and hydrologic behavior of brittle fault zones. We present 90 fabric intensity measurements using X-ray texture goniometry on 22 natural clay-rich fault gouges from low-angle detachment faults (Death Valley area detachments, California; Ruby Mountains, Nevada; West Salton Detachment Fault, C...

Clay is a soil component, a ceramic ware component, and a reinforcement in nanocomposites. Its viscoelastic behavior is relevant to vibration damping and slip rheology. The clay studied is hectorite, which is a trioctahedral magnesium-based smectite. Clay compacts with solid contents (50–53) vol% are studied in terms of the dynamic compressive properties at small static strains (3.1–3.5 %), low...

We developed an analytical relationship between nuclear magnetic relaxation and interparticle spacings in polymer nanocomposites filled with paramagnetic-impurity-containing clay nanoparticles. Using (1)H NMR relaxometry, clay nanoparticle dispersion was quantified and agrees with interparticle spacing distributions determined from statistical analysis of TEM images. Some information on the ove...

-Three methods were developed that allow for the imaging of any clay mineral in aqueous solutions with atomic force microscopy (AFM). The methods involve fixing the particles onto special substrates that do not complicate the imaging process, but hold the particles sufficiently so that they do not move laterally or float away during imaging. Two techniques depend on electrostatic attraction und...

Acanthomorphic acritarch fossils, including some interpreted to be the fossils of the earliest animal embryos, first appear in the lower Doushantuo Formation of the Yangtze Gorges area (YGA). Further, the complete paleontological and geochemical record for the YGA has played a central role in defining the global biological and geochemical backdrop that presaged and witnessed the dawn of diverse...