Abstract:
Nanoclays are one of the materials that have been more developed over the last decade. These materials have various applications for example to purify contaminated wastewater and others. There are several companies over the world that dedicates to its production and commercialization, however in Ecuador there is no companies that produce the nanoclays, even though there are several clay deposits that can be used for this purpose. The aim of this work is to determine the optimal methodology for obtaining nanoclays using local clays, so that in the future it can be implemented in industrial production. Three variables are studied as are amount of water/ethanol used for clay dilution, mixing time between clay solution and the alkilammonium salt solution, and the alkilammonium salt concentration, to determine wich one influences the nanoclay interlayer space increase. D spacing is measured by x-ray diffraction. The only variable that significantly influences the increase of nanoclay interlayer space is the alkilammonium salt concentration. With the optimal methodology founded in this investigation it can be obtained a nanoclay with an interlayer space of 34,1 Å, and at a cost 20% less compared to obtain the nanoclay using the methodology before being optimized.
