Mechanical treatment of porous ceramics, such as porous clay minerals, is a crucial step in ceramic processing. Among clay minerals, design swelling brittle micas have shown exceptional properties for further applications, although they exhibit low surface area and porosity. But, their mechanical activation could improve their textural properties and deserves to be investigated. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of gradual grinding in their surface and framework. At short grinding times, the surface area increases and mesoporous and microporous are generated. Long grinding time provokes particle agglomeration with the consequent change in their colloidal stability. At bulk level, framework defects are observed in both tetrahedral and octahedral sheets and increase with the total layer charge.

F.J. Osuna thanks his grant to the training researcher program associated with the excellence project of Junta de Andalucia (P12-FQM-567) . Dr. Pavon thanks University of Seville for the financial support of her current contract from VI PPIT-US program.

Peer reviewed