Hydrophilic polymer intercalation into montmorillonite-based clays as observed by neutron Compton scattering

Bentonite as a naturally occurring clay is subjected to the various modification processes to improve its selected properties. The intercalation of the organic compound into the structure of montmorillonite (MMT), being the basic component of bentonite, is one of the possibilities of changing its behaviour under the influence of water or high temperature. This was observed during the structural and thermal analysis of the MMT-sodium salt of copolymer maleic acid-acrylic acid (MMT-MA/AA) hybrid material. We have found, that the copolymer introduction into the MMT interlayer spaces stabilises thermally the obtained hybrid material. In order to complement our powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the infrared spectroscopy (IR) , we propose to measure by neutron Compton spectroscopy MMT and two systems subjected to structural and thermal analysis, MMT-PAA (poly(acrylic acid)) and MMT-PAA-Na.