Expansibility of vermiculite (Santa Luzia, Brazil) irradiated with microwave

Abstract The effect of microwave heating on the expansion of vermiculite was studied at a level of 700 W for 4 min exposure time and compared with raw vermiculite. In this study, the characterization of vermiculite from a mine in the northeast region of Brazil was performed using thermogravimetry, N2-adsorption, cation exchange capacity, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Following the microwave heating, the vermiculite was characterized using XRD, IR spectroscopy, and SEM. Microwave irradia...