Recently in my lab I’ve been trying to expand some Muscovite following two different protocols. I use XRD to verify the d-spacing after the treatment without ethylene glycol and with ethylene glycol. The treatment with ethylene glycol is used to confirm if the layer can expand or not.
With the first protocol, I use LiNO3to remove part of the K+ in the Muscovite and result are pretty similar to what other have obtained before: the treatment increases the d-spacing and the ethylene glycol treated clay increased the d-spacing even more, which confirm that the new Li-Muscovite is expandable.
With the second protocol, the first part work as intended too: the treatment increases the d-spacing. However, when I treat the sample with ethylene glycol to confirm if it can expand or not, the clay contract and the d-spacing are reduced. In fact, the d-spacing after the glycol treatment is identical to the d-spacing of the raw clay.
Has anyone ever observed something similar?
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