Modification of the thermal dehydroxylation of antigorite by ultrasound treatment.

The differences on the thermal behaviour (DTG-DTA) of antigorite sample measured before and after sonication have been studied. Sonication treatment produces negligible changes in the structure of the material but substantial textural modifications. These modifications produce changes in the thermal behaviour of antigorite sample. Thus, it has been observed a decrease in the dehydroxylation temperature as measured by DTG and DTA effects. For sonication treatments longer than 20 h, two new effects of dehydroxylation are observed, the intensity of these two new effects increases with the sonication time showing a modification in the release of structural OH. It has been also observed that the formation of forsterite takes place simultaneously with the dehydroxylation of the antigorite. The high temperature exothermic effect is due to the recrystallization of forsterite and not to the formation of forsterite as traditionally assumed. Modifications in the thermal dehydroxylation of antigorite observed in this study are related to the pronounced decrease in particle size obtained by sonication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]