TITLE:
Physico-Chemical Characterization of Akoko Mined Kaolin Clay
AUTHORS:
Abimbola George Olaremu
KEYWORDS:
Clay Mineral, Kaolin, Akoko, Beneficiation, Analytical Methods
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering,
Vol.3 No.5,
August
24,
2015
ABSTRACT: Over the past several decades, kaolin has been intensively used in ceramics formulation by the indigene
of Erusu Akoko, in south western Nigeria. Kaolin is a clay mineral with wide technological
applications in the industry. It finds applications in fiberglass, paper, rubber, tires, ceramics, cements, latex, paint, printing inks, catalysts for petroleum refining, medicines, water treatment,
cosmetics and others. In the present work, we studied the mineralogy of Erusu clay that had been
in use for several generations without understanding the physico-chemical properties. Samples of
the material were pre-treated and subjected to analysis. From our results, Akoko clay exhibited
decompositional water loss of 13.23% and 13.14% in air and argon respectively at 1000°C. The
Brunanuer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis showed that the kaolin clay was majorly a mesoporous
material and the isotherm was of the type iv. The micropore surface area obtained from t-plot is
9.06 m2/g indicating that the materials also contain micropore with size and volume of 15.611 ?
and 0.265 cc/g respectively. The XRD, IR and TEM analysis confirmed the presence of Kaolin and
Quarts as the major constituents of Akoko clay.