Increasing Clay Content (increasing + clay_content)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Mineral soil surface crusts and wind and water erosion

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 9 2004
Michael J. Singer
Abstract The ,rst few millimetres of soil largely control the soil's response to the eroding forces of wind and water. The tendency of soils to form surface seals and crusts in,uences the processes of wind and water erosion differently. For wind, dry particle size distribution and particle organization determine the shear strength and threshold wind velocity necessary to initiate particle movement. In loams and clay loams, seals and crusts decrease roughness but increase surface soil strength, generally decreasing wind erosion. Conversely, in sand and sandy loams, loose erodible sandy material may either deposit on the crust and is subject to erosion or it may disrupt the crust, accelerating the erosion process. For water erosion, particle size distribution and structure determine in,ltration rate, time to ponding, and energy required for soil particle detachment. Seals and crusts tend to decrease in,ltration rate and time to ponding thus increasing overland ,ow and soil erosion. This paper brie,y reviews how permanent and time-dependent soil properties in,uence surface seals and crusts and how these affect soil erosion by wind and water. The tendency of a soil to form a seal and crust depends to some degree on the time-dependent property of soil structural stability, which tends to increase with increasing clay content and smectitic mineralogy which are permanent properties. These permanent properties and their effect on structure are variable depending on dynamic properties of exchangeable sodium percentage and soil solution electrical conductivity. Antecedent water content prior to irrigation or rainfall, rate of wetting before an erosive event and aging, the time between wetting and an erosive event, greatly in,uence the response of soil structure to raindrop impact. The effect of these dynamic processes is further in,uenced by the static and dynamic properties of the soil. Weak structure will be less in,uenced by wetting rate than will a soil with strong structure. Process-based models of wind and water erosion need to consider the details of the interactions between soil static and dynamic properties and the dynamic processes that occur prior to erosive events. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The inherent ,safety-net' of an Acrisol: measuring and modelling retarded leaching of mineral nitrogen

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2002
D. Suprayogo
Summary The inherent features of Acrisols with their increasing clay content with depth are conducive to reducing nutrient losses by nutrient adsorption on the matrix soil surfaces. Ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3,) adsorption by a Plinthic Acrisol from Lampung, Indonesia was studied in column experiments. The peak of the H218O breakthrough occurred at 1 pore volume, whereas the median pore volumes for NH4+ and NO3, ranged from 6.4 to 6.9 and 1.1 to 1.6, respectively. The adsorption coefficients (Ka in cm3 g,1) measured were 1.81, 1.51, 1.64 and 1.47 for NH4+ and 0.03, 0.09, 0.10 and 0.17 for NO3,, respectively, in the 0,0.2, 0.2,0.4, 0.4,0.6 and 0.6,0.8 m soil depth layers. The NH4+ and NO3, adsorption coefficients derived from this study were put in to the Water, Nutrient and Light Capture in Agroforestry Systems (WaNuLCAS) model to evaluate their effect on leaching in the context of several cropping systems in the humid tropics. The resulting simulations indicate that the inherent ,safety-net' (retardation mechanism) of a shallow (0.8,1 m) Plinthic Acrisol can reduce the leaching of mineral N by between 5 and 33% (or up to 2.1 g m,2), mainly due to the NH4+ retardation factor, and that the effectiveness in reducing N leaching increases with increasing depth. However, the inherent ,safety-net' is useful only if deep-rooted plants can recover the N subsequently. [source]


Microstructure dependent properties of polypropylene-clay nanocomposites

JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE, Issue 1 2007
Y. Fan
Abstract The mechanical properties of melt processed polypropylene-montmorillonite nanocomposites were studied as a function of clay content. The measurement of tensile properties at room temperature and dynamic mechanical properties over a wide temperature range reveal a decrease in modulus and tensile strength of the composite with increasing clay content. The origins of this anomalous result were examined in detail using X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimeter, which averaged the microstructure over reasonable specimen volumes. Micromechanical models could be used to adequately describe the composite properties, provided appropriate properties for the matrix and particle were used. The matrix properties were found to affect the average properties significantly. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 204,210, 2007 [source]


The Effect of Nanofiller on the Thermomechanical Properties of Polyimide/Clay Nanocomposites

MACROMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS, Issue 6 2008
Khine Yi Mya
Abstract The interaction between PI and partially exfoliated clay nanofillers is investigated by studying the thermomechanical properties of the resulting nanocomposites by NMR, XPS, XRD, TEM, TGA, TMA, and DMA. XRD and TEM showed more exfoliated structure at ,2.5 wt.-% clay and a macrophase separation above 2.5 wt.-% clay. Td and the storage modulus increased with increasing clay content. A decrease in CTE was observed for clay content ,2.5 wt.-% because of the good dispersion of the clay in the polymer and the reduced segmental motion of polymer matrix. NMR confirmed the quality of clay dispersion, and XPS exhibited that the interaction in PI/2.5 wt.-% clay is much stronger than that in PI/5 wt.-% clay. [source]


Preparation and characterization of nylon 6/organoclay nanocomposite filament fibers

POLYMER COMPOSITES, Issue 3 2009
Kap Jin Kim
A series of nylon 6 (NY6)/organoclay nanocomposites were prepared via in situ polymerization of ,-caprolactam in the presence of 1,2-aminododecanoic acid-intercalated montmorillonite (ADA-MMT) organoclay (1,5 wt%) using 6-aminocaproic acid as polymerization catalyst. The extent of organoclay dispersion in NY6 matrix was analyzed using WAXD and SEM measurements. DSC studies revealed marginal shift in melting and melt-crystallization peaks toward lower temperature with increasing clay content. Melt viscosity studies for NY6/ADA-MMT exhibited higher shear-thinning behavior than neat NY6 probably due to the slip between NY6 matrix and exfoliated organoclay platelets during shear flow. The prepared nanocomposites were melt-spun and studied for their property improvements against varying clay content, draw ratios, and annealing conditions. Birefringence and sonic velocity values increased initially at lower draw ratios (,2.5) due to increased orientation of molecular chains along the drawing direction but saturated at higher draw ratio (3.0) for all the samples. At the same draw ratio; compared to neat NY6, NY6/organoclay fibers showed increased chain orientation along the drawing direction which can be attributed to the "tethering effect" of organoclay on NY6 matrix. The initial modulus and stress at break were sensitive to factors such as draw ratio, clay content, and annealing conditions. POLYM. COMPOS., 2009. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers [source]


Polyimide nanocomposites: Comparison of their properties with precursor polymer nanocomposites

POLYMER ENGINEERING & SCIENCE, Issue 12 2001
Jin-Hae Chang
A precursor poly(amic acid) was obtained by solution polymerization of pyromellitic dianhydride and benzidine in N, N-dimethylacetamide. Poly(amic acid)/Organoclay hybrids were prepared by the solution intercalation method with dodecylamine-montmorillonite. A polyimide hybrid was obtained from poly(amic acid) hybrid by heat treatment at various temperatures. The film type polyimide hybrids showed better thermal properties than poly(amic acid) hybrids. Also, the thermal stability of the two polymer hybrids were enhanced linearly with increasing clay content from 0 to 8 wt%. Tensile properties and gas barriers of the hybrids, however, were enhanced remarkably compared to pristine polymers. Intercalations of the polymer chains in clar were examined through wide angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Transmission electron microscopy revealed that a partially exfoliated structure had been obtained from polyimide/organo-clay hybrids. [source]


Twin-screw compounding of poly(methyl methacrylate)/clay nanocomposites: effects of compounding temperature and matrix molecular weight

POLYMER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 8 2007
Jr Hao Liaw
Abstract Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/organoclay nanocomposites prepared by melt-compounding using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder were intercalated nanocomposites. Commercially available PMMA resins of various molecular weights were used for comparison. The results showed an optimum compounding temperature for maximum intercalation with balanced shear and diffusion. Higher operating temperature reduced the shear mixing effect, and might have induced early degradation of the organoclay. Lower operating temperature, in contrast, reduced the mobility of the polymer molecules, which not only hampered the intercalation attempts, but also generated high torque in the extrusion. The mechanical behavior of the nanocomposites was studied. The tensile modulus, storage modulus and glass transition temperature of the nanocomposites increased with increasing clay content; however, an associated decrease in strength and strain at break was also observed. The notched impact strength also showed a slight decrease with clay content. Nanocomposites based on the lower molecular weight PMMA yielded more significant improvement in mechanical and thermal properties at the same clay content. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry [source]