Should I add any dispersing agent to the water for clay particle size distribution using mastersizer 2000 or ultrasound is enough? my samples are bentonite and illite.
Depending of the clay, ultrasound alone may not be sufficient to break the attraction forces between the particles. For kaolin I used a sodium polyacrylate solution. If your particle sizer can do real-time measurements, you can find an optimal concentration by turning it on and adding one drop at a time.
The only dispersing agent is energy - the optimum concentration of phosphate is often added to clay dispersions as a stabilizer. See slides 45 and onwards in:
Nov 11th, 2008. Dispersion and nanotechnology http://tinyurl.com/hpywsge
and also:
January 19th 2011 PST and BDAS - an acronym approach to laser diffraction method development
https://www.brainshark.com/malvern/vu?pi=478888057&text=M021507&r3f1=
Dear colleague,
The answer for this question depends on the sate of clay. For a solution state we can use ultrasound technics, in other states we should other methods.
Best regards!
@ Kenneth Of course you are correct. Light scattering in this instance shows the projected area (circular equivalent) of the plates with the z-axis RI being the important one. A volume in not extracted without some assumption of shape. The 'missing mass' (plate as opposed to sphere) allows the calculation of aspect ratios of clays in certain instances. The bookleaf smectite structure is actually very difficult to 'disperse' - the plates can be 10 nm in thickness (z-axis) but 1 - 20 um in x/y dimensions.
Yes, Moh's hardness of 1. That's often why the leaves can't be separated and there's attrition of the system.
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