Study of Clays Electrochemical Purification
Abstract
Clays, are usually accompanied by other minerals as impurities such as quartz, anatase and especially
iron as hydrated oxides or as intercrystalline replacement element. The presence of this iron affects clays
in some industrial applications such as in production of ceramics, paper, refractories, etc. Then, its
removal is necessary and beneficial. In this work an electrochemical study of two samples of clay from the
state of Hidalgo, is presented. The two types of clay were characterized by the technique of mass
spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The samples were also studied by electrochemical
techniques such as cyclic voltammetry and cathodic inversion voltammetry which showed the energy
potential conditions where impurities removal is possible. Samples tested were characterized by scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) before and at the end of the process.