Properties of Mixtures of Clay Minerals. Part II. Ternary Mixtures

Studies have been made on the differential thermal analysis and on the variations in the pH, specie conductance, cationic activity, and viscosity on the progressive addition of bases to six ternary mixtures of kaolinite, montmorillonite, and illite. An examination of the total acidities and pH at inflection in the pH-base concentration curves, total acidity at the breaks of the conductometric titration curves, cationic dissocia­tion, variation of viscosity on the addition of bases to H-clay mixtures, and the differential thermal analysis data indicates that individual constituents markedly influence the properties of other constituents in the mix­ture and the conclusion drawn from any single measurement is likely to lead to erroneous results. Attempts have been made to establish certain criteria for identification and estimation of individual clay mineral constitu­ents in the mixtures