X-ray diffraction studies of intercalation compounds prepared from aniline salts and montmorillonite by a mechanochemical processing

Inorganic-organic intercalation compounds comprised of montmorillonite (MMT) and aniline salts with different counter anions were prepared by a mechanochemical processing. The intercalation process and the formed structure of intercalation compounds were investigated via X-ray diffraction analysis. The amounts of intercalated species were very likely dependent on the types of counter anions and increased with decreasing the size of counter anions during the mechanochemical processing. Very interestingly, much larger interlayer expansions of 1.51 nm was observed for aniline hydrofluoride AnF- and aniline hydrochloride AnCl-MMT systems in higher intercalates loading levels, suggesting that neutral guest molecules also introduce within the interlayer regions together with anilinium cations by van der Waals interactions. Judging from the larger interlayer expansions and the size of guest molecules, intercalated species are expected to prefer a tri-molecular layer arrangement with their aromatic rings perpendicular to the silicate sheets. In contrast, for aniline hydrobromide AnBr-MMT, the interlayer expansion was ca. 0.52 nm, which reveals that only anilinium cations are introduced by ion exchange and they probably adopt a vertical orientation in the interlayers. It is inferred that aniline hydroiodide AnI-MMT compounds have a heterogeneous structure containing both anilinium and sodium cations in the interlayers. Different intercalation behaviors during the mechanochemical processing strongly suggest the smaller the size of counter anions, the more guest molecules can be intercalated into the confined clay interlayers in highly ordered arrangements.