The dealumination of kaolinite by the solid/solution"interfacial" reaction with HCl(aq) at 98
Cwasinvestigated using solid-state
1H CRAMPS and MAS
29Si NMR techniques. The single-pulse (SP)/MAS
29Si NMRspectra of kaolinite-derived solids that are 2-83% dealuminated areobserved to be dependent upon the degree ofdealumination, showing three resolvable resonances at -89, -100,and -109 ppm. The -89 ppm resonance is dueto silicon Q
3-typeSi(OSi)
3(OAl
2) sites in unreactedkaolinite, while the latter two resonances are assigned tonewQ
3-type silica-alumina (Si-OH
+-Al) andto Q
4-type amorphous silica (Si(OSi)
4)sites contained in dealuminatedkaolinite solids following partial dealumination. The
1H CRAMPS spectra of these dealuminated solids arealsodependent upon the degree of removal of Al
3+ ions fromthe kaolinite Al-OH-Al layer. In addition to abroadproton peak at 4.0 ppm due to structural protons of the intactAl-OH-Al layer in unreacted kaolinite, two newresonances at 0.4 and 7.0 ppm are assigned to protons of the newsilanol (Si-OH) and alumina-silica(Si-OH
+-Al) sites. The spectral intensities of the SP/MAS
29Si and
1H CRAMPS NMR results arecorrelated with the progressof dealumination, permitting the development of a structural model forpartially dealuminated kaolinite. This structuralmodel is consistent with a kinetic model involving achemically-controlled "heterogeneous" reaction processwherebyH
+ ion attack of the Si-O-Al linkages at the edges ofthe
mineral surface leads to
liberation of aluminum ionsintothe solution medium.