Purification of commercial grade bentonite from LamDong, Vietnam for nano-size montmorillonite

The article will report the purification of Dilinh bentonite sample deposits of Lamdong province in Vietnam. The combination of sonication, sedimentation and dispersant (NaPO3)6 were applied to increase the montmorillonite (MMT) content. To evaluate the effect of (NaPO3)6 concentration, X-ray diffraction, Infra-red spectra, X-ray fluorescence spectra, dynamic light scatteringand scanning electron microscopy analyses were carried out. The results showed that, when (NaPO3)6content increased, the fraction of MMT increased and that of quartz decreased. The optimum (NaPO3)6 content was 5 wt%,to eliminate maximum of quartz and other non clay minerals, the recovery yield was 71.2%.This was a high quality MMT selection process; the purified MMT is suitable for application as nanofiller in high performance polymer nanocomposites.