Compression Studies of Illite Suspensions

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Abstract
It can be shown that the classical Gouy‐Chapman theory of the electric double layer formed on planar surfaces provides and acceptable means of predicting the “osmotic” pressure of clay suspensions for various particle spacings and electrolyte contents.A compression apparatus was designed for the measurement of the swelling pressures of clay suspensions over the range 0.1 to 100 atm. The results obtained with this apparatus for a number of illite samples are consistent with those predicted by theory.Consideration of the implications of these experiments for the mechanism of flocculation favors the following conclusions: (1) The attractive forces acting between clay particles in flocculated suspensions are probably a simple Coulombic attraction between negative and positive sites on the respective particles; (2) Van der Waal's forces are of no consequence in flocculation phenomena in the suspensions studied; (3) The energy of flocculation is small and cannot contribute significantly to the resistance of aggregates to mechanical breakdown.

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