Characterization of kaolinic clay minerals by emanation thermal analysis

Emanation Thermal Analysis ETA), which is based on the measurement of the rate of release of radon from solid samples previously labelled with trace concentrations of inert radioactive nuclides (228Th and 224Ra), can reveal the different physico-chemical and structural phenomena that occur during the heating of kaolinite from 20 to 1,300 deg. C. The results obtained depend on the crystallinity of the kaolinite sample and demonstrate the potential of ETA as a complementary method to conventional thermo-analysis and XRD in the field of clay minerals. (authors). 17 refs., 1 fig