Features of the chemical composition and structure of bentonites in Tatarstan

Abstract

Abstract The article studies the chemical, mineralogical, granulometric composition and type of chemical bond, as well as meso- and macrostructure of bentonite of the Nurlat deposit of the Republic of Tatarstan. By laser diffraction, the average particle size in the studied bentonite was found to be dominated by fractions of particles with a size of less than 10 µm (31.18%) and 10-40 µm (36.99%). The average particle size of bentonite was 45.67 µm. According to X-ray analysis, bentonite is mineralogically represented by montmorillonite with an interplane distance of 15.0 Å (001), muscovite, chlorite, kaolinite, clinoptilolite, albite and quartz. The microstructure of bentonite is formed mainly by large anisometric flattened microaggregates and volumetric isometric aggregates up to 70 µm. The average pore size was 0.23 µm, porosity was 39.2%. The microstructural model was cellular with elements of a spongy structure.