A. Bourliva, Spectroscopic and thermal study of bentonites from Milos Island, Greece, Δελτίο της Ελληνικής Γεωλογικής Εταιρείας, 47|2013, 2020-2029

Bentonitic clays, currently in use in over hundred areas, are among the most important industrial raw materials. In most of the cases, bentonites predominantly consist of montmorillonite which is a 2:1 layer clay mineral formed by one alumina octahedral sheet placed between two silica tetrahedral sheets. Three bentonite composite samples (BN1, BN2, BN3) with some differences in mineralogical and chemical composition from Milos island (“Miloan”), Greece were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and surface area (BET) measurements techniques. Mineralogically, bentonite samples were characterized by high concentrations of smectite (>85%) and minor amounts of other clay minerals (illite and kaolinite). Nonclay minerals such as quartz, calcite and pyrite were also identified. The infrared spectrum of the bentonites also revealed the presence of dioctahedral smectite as the major component and quartz as the main impurity in all the samples. The stretching vibration at 3698cm-1 in the sample BN3 could be ascribed to kaolinite. DTA-TG curves of all samples were measured in the temperature range 75-1000oC. The total weight losses for the bentonite samples BN1, BN2 and BN3 were determined as 16.25, 12.32 and 13.35% respectively.