Estudo da ativação de argila turfosa proveniente de rejeito de mineração

Abstract

This study has been developed seeking to prove the usage of a peaty clay that is a mining waste, due to its high organic matter content which and can’t be applied in refractories, thus seeking applications focused on geotherapy. As this is a smectite group clay, and with studies focused on its properties, it was then sought to characterize this clay and to develop a method for its organophilization, in order to prove that this process would bring improvements in its properties, both in cation exchange, as an expansion in its interlamellar spacing.To this end, the study of organofilization with ethylene glycol was carried out, and then the clay was characterized before and after this process, with techniques for cation exchange capacity, pH, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. By the techniques it was possible to identify the composition of the clay, as to the phases present and organic groups. Based on this characterization, it was noted that a pre-expansion through the insertion of ethylene glycol into the first layer of the clay may have occurred. This pre-expansion is interesting, but still not expressive enough to define the benefits of its use in geotherapy applications, requiring further study to confirm.