Liquid-Phase Exfoliation of Kaolinite by High-Shear Mixer with Graphite Oxide as an Amphiphilic Dispersant

In this study, a simple, effective, and versatile method was used for the exfoliation of kaolinite by high-shear mixer with graphite oxide as an an amphiphilic dispersant. During the liquid-phase exfoliation process, the co-exfoliation of kaolinite and graphite oxide was realized. Compared with the directly exfoliated kaolinite, when 5% graphite oxide was added to facilitate exfoliation, 95% of the obtained nanosheets were distributed between 0.1 and 0.7 mu m, in which the number of layers was less than 5, and part of them were curled into nanoscrolls structure with a length of 0.2-0.9 mu m. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of the graphite oxide assisted exfoliated kaolinite was 2.1 times that of the directly exfoliated kaolinite. Meanwhile, the graphite oxide assisted exfoliated kaolinite exhibited excellent adsorption properties for MB, whose theoretical maximum adsorption capacity was 250 mg/g, significantly higher than that of the directly exfoliated kaolinite, which was about 111 mg/g. It has been verified that the exfoliation method is efficient and facile and can be applied extensively.