Some Remarks on the Methodology of Thermal Analysis of Clay Minerals

The influence of certain experimental conditions on the courses of the thermal curves (DTA and DTG) of selected clay minerals was studied. The thickness of the sample layer, the sample mass, the type of sample holder and the parameters of the air atmosphere were varied in thermal analyses of 13 samples of clay minerals. Comparison of the results obtained on different clay samples analysed under different experimental conditions may serve as the basis for the improvement of the thermal analysis methodology applied for the study of clay minerals. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.