X-ray diffraction study of zirconia pillared clays

X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and X-ray radial electronic distribution density (RED) of initial and zirconia-pillared interlayered clays (Zr-PILC) were studied. After pillaring, the basal (001) spacing was found to increase from 11 Å in the initial clay kept under air to 17.7 Å in Zr-PILC. The structure of zirconium nanopillars was characterized. The interatomic distances with corresponding coordination numbers obtained from the RED curves were close to those in zirconium tetramers.This revised version was published online in December 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.