Preparation and characterization of montmorillonite particles under calcination and ball milling process

Abstract

This study aims to produce nano-sized montmorillonite particles which will be developed as polymer composites fillers. Montmorillonite particles were sieved and then calcined. Ball Milling process was applied to montmorillonite to achieve better particle size. Analyzing using Particle size analyzer (PSA) was carried out on montmorillonite powder without calcination process, calcined montmorillonite powder, and calcined montmorillonite which had ball milling treatment for 5,000 cycles and 10,000 cycles. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) used to find out the structure of particles due to the type of treatment that has been applied. As a result, the PSA shows that the calcination treatment produces smaller particle sizes. The smaller particle size was shown by the results of PSA testing of calcined montmorillonite powder and subjected to ball milling treatment for 10,000 cycles. The micrograph results confirm this phenomenon, where particles of 200nm appear on the powder that has undergone calcination and ball mill treatment.