Dielectric properties of some cationic forms of laponite clay

Abstract

Laponite is synthetic smectite clay. It resembles the natural clay mineral hectorite. They have same structure and composition. Laponite is layered hydrous magnesium silicate, which is hydrothermally synthesized from simple silicates, and lithium and magnesium salts in the presence of mineralizing agents. In this study, at the room temperature, dielectric properties of K+ and Ca+2 cationic forms of laponite were investigated. First of all, free space capacitance was calculated and capacitances and electrical conductance of some cationic forms of laponite were measured. Relative permittivity,epsilon(r), and electrical conductivity, sigma, were calculated by using results. epsilon(r) and sigma versus frequency between 100 Hz and 1 MHz were plotted.