Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012.
* Deceased.
A comparative study on the structural changes of micaceous clay minerals has been made after extraction of K with boiling 1M HNO3 and sodium tetraphenylboron by X-ray diffraction analysis. In case of HNO3 extraction, the integral width of 1.0 nm peak decreased considerably, particularly, in the fine clay fraction; but in case of sodium tetraphenylboron, the integral width increased appreciably and new peaks appeared. It shows that while sodium tetraphenylboron causes transformation of mica into interstratified and vermiculite minerals, boiling HNO3 causes dissolution of finer particles. Differential X-ray diffraction (DXRD) shows that HNO3 treatment dissolved smectite and interstratified smectite, chlorite, vermiculite andfinerfractions of mica.
Nitric acid, sodium tctraphenylboron, micaceous clay, differential X-ray diffraction, non-exchangeable potassium
