Rheological Behavior of Pyrophyllite-Water Slurry in the Presence of Anionic, Cationic, and Nonionic Surfactants

The rheological behavior of prophyllite-water clay slurry has been studied in the presence of three different types of surfactants, anionic, cationic, and nonionic The slurry is non-Newtonian and thixotropic in nature, and the hysteresis area increases with increasing clay concentration. In the presence of acidic pH, surface potential is low and viscosity is high; the opposite is true for alkaline pH The theological behavior is different in the presence of three surfactants The viscosity highly depends on the types of surfactant adsorbed on the clay surface and surface potential after the adsorption. The 400 lattice spacing of the pyrophyllite clay does not change after the adsorption of surfactants. indicating that the surfactants are not adsorbing inside the clay spacing.