Some organisms disperse energy, associated with the transportation of resource, which is not necessarily food. Stingless bees of Central Amazonia (Melipona flavolineata and M. lateralis) collect clay in banks along streams for nest building. The moisture of the clay varies along the bank, and bees collect clay from specific location, indicating that there is some sort of preference regarding th...

Sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) clay was modified with three different unnatural amino acids in order to design intercalated clay structures that may be used for bone biomaterials applications. Prior work on polymer-clay nanocomposites (PCNs) has indicated the effect of the appropriate choice of modifiers on enhancing properties of PCNs. Our X-ray diffraction results indicate an increase in the...

Define a mixture with volume V containing a certain amount of clay (Vc) and sand (Vs), i.e. V = Vc + Vs. The intrinsic porosity of the clay is φc, defined as the ratio of pore volume in the clay V c p to the volume of clay, i.e. φc = V c p /Vc, and the intrinsic porosity of sand is φs = V s p /Vs. The surface areas of the pores in the clay and in the sand are noted S p and S s p respectively. S...

Metal ions present on smectite clay (montmorillonite) platelets have preferential reactivity towards peroxy/alkoxy groups during polyamide 6 (PA6) thermal decomposition. This changes the decomposition pathway and negatively affects the ignition response of PA6. To restrict these interfacial interactions, high-temperature-resistant polymers such as polyetherimide (PEI) and polyimide (PI) were us...

High performance epoxy resin (tetra-glycidyl-4,4’diamino-diphenyl methane-TGDDM) is brittle and is sensitive to moisture absorption and thermooxidative effects. An approach to mitigate polymer sensitivity towards moisture and thermal effects is to add clay. The addition of clay to resin systems (e.g. diglycidyl ether bisphenol A-DGEBA) has often yielded an overall improvement in properties of t...

a r t i c l e i n f o In Soil Taxonomy three diagnostic subsurface horizons reflect clay enrichment: the argillic, kandic, and natric horizons. Clay illuviation is recognized in Soil Taxonomy at some level in 10 of the 12 orders, including the percent of the soil series in the USA contain taxonomically defined clay-enriched horizons. However, many other soils contain Bt horizons that do not qua...

The presence of clay-sized particles and clay minerals in modern sands and ancient sandstones has long presented an interesting problem, because primary depositional processes tend to lead to physical separation of fineand coarse-grained materials. Numerous processes have been invoked to explain the common presence of clay minerals in sandstones, including infiltration, the codeposition of floc...

Clay-based nanostructured multilayers, such as clay-polymer multilayers and clay-oxide multilayers, have attracted growing attention owing to their remarkable mechanical properties and promising application in various fields. In this paper, synthesis of a new kind of nanostructured clay-oxide multilayers by layer-by-layer self-assembly was explored. Nano-mechanical characterization of 18 clay-b...

Composites based on high density polyethylene (HDPE), pine flour, and organic clay were made by melt compounding and then injection molding. The influence of clay on crystallization behavior, mechanical properties, water absorption, and thermal stability of HDPE/pine composites were investigated. The HDPE/pine composites containing exfoliated clay were made by a two-step melt compounding proced...

INTRODUCTION Clays, and more specifically 2 :1 phyllosilicates consisting of aluminoor magnesiosilicate negatively charged staked layers separated by van der Walls spacings where inorganic countercations (sodium, calcium,... cations) are located, can be associated with polymers to give interesting new materials called polymer/clay nanocomposites. Polymer/clay nanocomposites have been intensivel...