Study of Clays Electrochemical Purification

Clays, are usually accompanied by other minerals as impurities such as quartz, anatase and especially iron as hydrated oxides or as intercrystalline replacement element. The presence of this iron affects clays in some industrial applications such as in production of ceramics, paper, refractories, etc. Then, its removal is necessary and beneficial. In this work an electrochemical study of two samples of clay from the state of Hidalgo, is presented. The two types of clay were characterized by the technique of mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The samples were also studied by electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry and cathodic inversion voltammetry which showed the energy potential conditions where impurities removal is possible. Samples tested were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and at the end of the process.