JOURNAL OF THERMAL ANALYSIS AND CALORIMETRY, vol.94, no.3, pp.835-840, 2008 (SCI-Expanded)
The water adsorption properties of sepiolite having dolomite supplied from Eskisehir region and their exchanged forms (K+, Na+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) were investigated. The sepiolite samples were characterized using XRD, TG-DTA, DSC and nitrogen adsorption methods. The temperature ranges were determined for the dehydrations of hydroscopic and zeolitic water as 30-200A degrees C, for the dehydration of the bound water as 250-750A degrees C and for the dehydroxylation of hydroxyls as 810-850A degrees C in the sample. It was observed that the value of percent mass loss for natural and modified samples varied in the range from 36.70 to 39.05%. Two mass loss steps for all samples were observed using a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the range of 30-550A degrees C. Adsorption isotherms for water on natural and modified forms were obtained at pressures up to 2.39 kPa. Uptake of water increased as K-SEP.< Na-SEP.< Mg-SEP.< Ca-SEP. for sepiolite samples at 293 K.