Nozaki Koji

We have found that X-ray diffraction peaks of clay-organic hybrid films were narrowed after swelling followed by removing of solvent. We fabricated hybrid films consisting of natural montmorillonite (Mont), synthetic saponite (SSA) or synthetic stevensite (SST) and a cationic organic molecule. Full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 001 reflection of as-prepared Mont hybrid was 1.58 2θ degree whereas that after swelling and solvent removing procedure was 0.84 2θ degree. This decreasing of FWHM indicated that the improvement of packing order of clay particles in clay-organic hybrid was occurred during swelling and solvent removing procedure. Similar decreasing of FWHM was also found in hybrids consisting of SSA or SST. Improvement of packing order of hybrid was found to accompany suppression of light scattering of hybrid at the same time.