Thermally induced cation migration in Na and Li montmorillonite

In order to determine whether Li⁺ cations penetrate into the octahedral layers of montmorillonites upon mild heating (Hofmann-Klemen effect) ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectra of Na⁺ and Li⁺ exchanged montmorillonite were obtained before and after treatment at 220 ° C. The ⁵⁷Fe nucleus was used as a remote probe to detect electronic perturbations which would occur if a Li cation was to move into the octahedral layer from the interlayer after heating. The ambient Mössbauer spectra showed that a high charge density interlayer cation such as Li⁺ is effective in reducing the phonon energy of ^VIFe²⁺. In addition the EFG at octahedral sites can be significantly modified by interlayer cations as evidenced by the larger quadrupole splitting value measured for the Li⁺-exchanged sample with respect to the Na⁺-sample. Interlayer collapse and migration of exchange cations into the montmorillonite lattice after heating to 220 ° C resulted in the oxidation of the ^VIFe²⁺ and a decrease in site distortion for ^IVFe³⁺. Similar spectral parameters for the Fe³⁺ resonances of both Na⁺ — and Li⁺-heated samples suggested the interlayer cations do not penetrate as far as the octahedral layers. In order to utilize the enhanced sensitivity of ^VIFe²⁺ Δ values to changes in EFG the Fe³⁺ in the heated montmorillonites was reduced to Fe²⁺ with hydrazine. Similar spectral parameters for both the Na⁺ — and Li⁺-exchanged montmorillonite were observed giving further evidence that Li cations do not migrate into vacant octahedral sites.