JOURNAL OF THERMAL ANALYSIS AND CALORIMETRY, cilt.88, sa.3, ss.813-817, 2007 (SCI-Expanded)
An industrial raw material taken from Beypazan (Ankara, Turkey) region was heated at different temperatures in the 100-1100 degrees C interval for 2 h. The volumetric percentage of particles having diameter below 2 mu m in an aqueous suspension of the material held 24 h were determined as 85% by the particle size distribution analysis. The mineralogical composition of the material was obtained as mass% of 81% sepiolite, 15% dolomite, and 4% interparticle water by using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal analysis (TG, DTA) data. The temperature ranges were determined for the dehydrations of the interparticle water and the zeolitic water as 25-340 degrees C, for the dehydration of the bound water as 340-580 degrees C, and for the dehydroxylation of the hydroxyls as 800-833 degrees C in the sepiolite. The zig-zag changes in the specific surface area (S/m(2) g(-1)) and specific micro- and mesopore volume (V/cm(3) g) with the temperature increases were discussed according to the dehydrations and dehydroxylation of the sepiolite.