Infrared absorption and emission study of synthetic mica-montmorillonite in comparison to rectorite, beidellite and paragonite

Barasym SMM-100 (SMM for synthetic mica montmorillonite) from NL industries forms one of the standard clay samples in the Clay Minerals Society Source Clays Project. The nature of this interstratified synthetic material is compared to the natural equivalent of a regularly interstratified MM known as rectorite, whose structure exhibits the regular stratification, a smectite known as beidellite and the sodium-mica paragonite. The comparison is made between Barasym SMM-100 and the natural rectorite Rar-1a, synthetic baidellite and natural paragonite. Infrared spectroscopic evidence suggests that the SMM-100 is an irregularly interstratified phyllosilicate with much more baidellite-like than paragonite-like layers.