- journal_title：Clay Minerals
- Contributor：M. Matusewicz ; K. Pirkkalainen ; V. Liljeström ; J.-P. Suuronen ; A. Root ; A. Muurinen ; R. Serimaa ; M. Olin
- Publisher：Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
- Date：2013-05-01
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- Identifier：10.1180/claymin.2013.048.2.08
- journal_abbrev：Clay Minerals
- issn：0009-8558
- volume：48
- issue：2
- firstpage：267
- section：Clay microstructure investigations
Bentonite clay is planned to form a part of deep-geological repositories of spent nuclear fuel in several countries. The extremely long operation time of the repository requires an in-depth understanding of the structure and properties of used materials. In this work the microstructure of a simplified system of Ca-montmorillonite is investigated using a set of complementary methods: X-ray diffraction, small angle X-ray scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance, transmission electron microscopy and ion exclusion. The paper presents experimental results obtained from compacted, water saturated samples in the dry density range 0.6–1.5 g/cm3. It can be observed that different methods yield similar quantification of water present in the interlamellar space. Combined results support the multiple porosity concept of the bentonite structure.