Kinetic determination of critical coagulation concentrations for sodium- and calcium-montmorillonite colloids in NaCl and CaCl2 aqueous solutions

The stability of the sodium and calcium forms of montmorillonite was studied at different NaCl and CaCl2 concentrations. The aggregation kinetics was determined from the decrease in particle concentration with time at different electrolyte concentrations. The DLVO theory defines the critical coagulation concentration (CCC) value as the electrolyte concentration that balances the attractive and repulsive potential energies between the particles, making aggregation diffusion-controlled. Therefore CCC values were obtained by extrapolation of the aggregation rate constants measured as a function of ionic strength to conditions where the rate constant value is determined by diffusion only. When the electrolyte was CaCl2, the CCC value was found to be approximately two orders of magnitude lower than the CCC values obtained using NaCl as electrolyte. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.