Evaluation of the exfoliation and stability of Na-montmorillonite in aqueous dispersions

Abstract In aqueous dispersion, Na-montmorillonite swells due to absorption of water and exfoliate into smaller entities, known as tactoids, with electric double layers on their surfaces. The exfoliation rate of such tactoids in aqueous Laponite dispersion was seen to be greatly reduced at the jamming transition and was reported by this group in a recent article [Langmuir, 2013, 29, 12663–12669]. The work reported here uses ultrasound attenuation spectroscopy experiments on Na-montmorillonite dispersions and shows that the complete exfoliation of tactoids is not achieved even below the jamming concentration. This behavior indicates that screened Coulomb repulsions between and within tactoids, as well as the osmotic pressure of hydrated Na+ ions, play very important roles in the exfoliation kinetics of tactoids. In this work, the phenomenon of tactoid exfoliation is studied systematically by changing clay mineral concentration, ionic conditions and the ages of the dispersions. A signature of an irreversible process of tactoid reformation under certain ionic conditions is also observed. Finally, electroacoustic measurements and rheometry are used to assess the influence of tactoid exfoliation on the stability and viscoelasticity of the arrested phases formed under different ionic conditions.