Superficial performance and pore structure of palygorskite treated by hydrochloric acid

In order to amend the superficial performance of palygorskite and improve its application, the natural palygorskite(NP) was treated in the dipping and ionic exchanging experiments using 6 mol/L hydrochloric acid treatment. The performance and pore structure of the treated palygorskite(TP) were investigated by means of microscope analyses, FT-IR, XRF, BET-SSA and full hole distribution analytical techniques. The results show that the hydrochloric acid treatment can make the gracile and aggregating compact crystal bundles inside palygorskite clay broken and dispersed, the roughness of microcrystalline surface increases, which not only can dissolve or remove dolomite but vary the superficial performance of palygorskite to some degree. The specific surface area and pore volume increase a lot, while the mean pore size decreases. The pore structure of TP changes remarkably compared with that of NP after 6 mol/L hydrochloric acid treatment, and the relevant physicochemical performance can be improved.