Particle properties of hydrothermal ammonium-bearing illite-smectite

• Published in: Clays and clay minerals Vol. 55; no. 1; pp. 36 - 44
• Main Authors: Sucha, Vladimir, Uhlik, Peter, Madejova, Jana, Petit, Sabine, Kraus, Ivan, Puskelova, L'ubica
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boulder, CO Clay Minerals Society 01.02.2007; The Clay Minerals Society
• Subjects: ammonium; Ammonium Illite-Smectite; Banska Stiavnica Slovakia; Carpathian Mountains; Carpathians; cation exchange capacity; Central Europe; chemical properties; clay mineralogy; clay minerals; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Europe; Exact sciences and technology; geochemistry; Hydrothermal Activity; hydrothermal alteration; illite; metasomatism; mineral interlayer; Mineralogy; mixed-layer minerals; Particle Properties; particles; properties; rectorite; Rectorite-Like Mineral; rock, sediment, soil; sed rocks, sediments; Sedimentary petrology; sheet silicates; Silicates; Slovakia; smectite; Carpathians; Western Carpathians; illite; cations; mountains; Fourier transformation; Europe; ammonium; X-ray diffraction; hydrothermal activity; chemical analysis; clay; rectorite; smectite; Carpathian Mountains; sedimentary rocks; mineralization; Rectorite-like Mineral; Particle Properties; clay minerals; sheet silicates; silicates; particles; Ammonium Illite-smectite; clastic rocks; sulfides
• ISSN: 0009-8604; 1552-8367
• DOI: 10.1346/CCMN.2007.0550103

Mixed-layer illite-smectite with high degree of ordering (rectorite-like clay) and with three types of interlayer cations--K+, Na+ and NH+4, was determined in the high-sulfide epithermal mineralization of the Western Carpathian Mountains. The tobelitic portion of the clay comprises 5-10%. Ammonium was detected both by chemical analysis and by Fourier transform infrared analysis. Some of the ammonium can be assigned to a poorly bound form, not fully fixed in the illitic interlayer. The finest size fraction separated from the samples behaves differently from the rest of the sample. It contains two layers of water molecules in the expandable interlayers as determined by X-ray diffraction, whereas coarser fractions have only one water layer in the interlayers.