UTILIZATION OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN FOR SPECIFIC SURFACE AREA OPTIMIZATION OF A PILLARED BENTONITE

Abstract

Statistically designed experiments were used to study the effects of relevant factors, such as calcination  temperature and  duration,  in  obtaining  of  Al-pillared  clays  with  a  high  specific  surface area. Experiments have been planned by the factorial 3² design methods. The optimal  conditions to obtain  the  maximum  specific  surface  area  of  Al-pillared  bentonite  were  deduced  as  follows: calcination temperature 326°C and calcination duration 63 min, for a specific surface area of 152.49 m²/g. The results from BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) method showed that the pillared smectite clay possesses a specific surface area up to 155.65 m²/g. Besides, chemical treatment of smectite clay by pillaring  process  produces  an  adsorbent  with  optimal  porosity  and  other  adsorption  properties suitable for many industrial processes.