HDTMA in the interlayers of high-charged Llano vermiculite

X-ray diffraction shows that ordered interlayer structures form when high-charged Llano vermiculite is reacted with HDTMA-Br or HDTMA-acetate, but the structures differ from those given by low-charged vermiculites. The differences arise in two ways; firstly when both HDTMA+ cations and HDTMA-Br (or -acetate) ion pairs are present as interlayer guest species, a superstructure forms which is less commensurate with the host structure of high-charge vermiculite than it is for lower-charged material. Secondly, although a commensurate 3axb interlayer superstructure forms when HDTMA+ cations are the only interlayer guests, an increasing number of charge-balancing cations must be accommodated as the layer charge increases. This results in some structural disorder which is only observed in the diffraction pattern of HDTMA+-intercalated, high-charge vermiculite. Organic ion pairs tend to order along widely spaced rows corresponding to the intersections of two sets of scattering planes. For the acetate form, one set of planes has spacings of 3.52 Å, but for the bromide form the value is 3.67 Å. Scattering planes in the second set have spacings of 4.02 Å, independently of counter-anion size. These two sets of planes diverge from one another by approximately 10°. Ordering is more apparent in the presence of acetate anions than it is for the smaller Br- anions. In the high-charged intercalates, from which organic ion pairs have been removed, HDTMA+ cations occupy positions on a centered two-dimensional superlattice and also randomly, some interstitial positions as necessitated by layer charge.