Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SD7-P046
CHARACTERIZATION OF BENTONITE AFTER CATIONIC
INTERCHANGE TO RECOVER RARE EARTHS FROM A
SEDIMENTARY LEACHED MINERAL
Claudia A. Amador Ortega 1 , Magda G. Sánchez Trujillo 2 , Ventura Rodríguez Lugo 1 , Eduardo
Cerecedo Sáenz 1 , Demetrio Mendoza Anaya 3 , Juan Hernández Ávila 1 , Ma. I. Reyes Valderrama 1 ,
Eleazar Salinas 1
1 Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Academic Area of Earth Sciences and Materials,
Mexico. 2 Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Superior School of Tepeji del Río,
Mexico. 3 Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ), Advanced Materials, Mexico.
The bentonite term is applied to the rock formed by expansive clays minerals,
that if they contained minerals such as montmorrillonite, saponite, nontronite,
vermiculite among others, also can contain other minerals in different fractions.
Bentonite is formed by minerals of the group of the smectite, principally, and it
is considered as a plastic, colloidal and inflatable clay regardless of its geological
origin. Traditionally, bentonites exhibit some good properties such as small
particle sizes below 2 mm, laminar morphology, isomorphic substitutions,
details of charge in the liminal zone and presence of cations weakly linked to
interllaminar space [1]. As a result, this kind of material presents a high value of
superficial area and a great quantity of actived area with non satured links,
which can interact with some substances specially polar compounds, having a
plastic behavior in mixtures water-clays with high proportion solid/liquid and
they are able to expand in some cases. Properties of bentonite not only depend
on smetic mineral, but also on their crystallinity degree and the crystal size,
among other aspects, that is why properties can vary. For these reasons,
bentonite applications can vary and specifications for each case are particular
[2]. Residual water retained interstitially in the cells of clays is an important
factor that controls plasticity, adherence compaction, suspension and other
properties of minerals of these kind of clays. Substitution of silicon by cations,
lead a negative charge excess in the network, which is balanced by cations such
as Na + , K + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ in the interlayer space. This work is related with the
interchange of cationic spaces of the bentonite to recover rare earths elements
leaching of a sedimentary ore deposit, and results appear to be good.
References
[1]. Antonio Trejo Osorio “Intercambio iónico en arcillas”. Tesis de ingeniería
CIMYM, UAEH, (2006)