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Laponite® RD is lithium sodium magnesium silicate ( Na0.7 Si8 Mg5.5 Li0.3 O20 (OH)4). It is commonly used in personal care products, agriculture, polymer industry, and surface coating. Laponite® RD is supplied as white powder having very fine particles on the order of 25nm. Transparent soft clay is prepared by mixing Laponite® RD with water; the material is suitable for representing very soft marine clays (~0.4 kPa). The maximum concentration of Laponite® powder is approximately 4 to 4.5%., to maintain transparency. However, with the addition of sodium pyrophosphate, Laponite® can be increased to 15 %. Transparent soft clay is recommended to represent the marine clay soil.
References by Others
- Beemer, R. D., Shaughnessy, E., Ewert, K. R., Boardman, N., Biscontin, G., Aubeny, C. P., & Grajales, F. J. (2016), The Use of Sodium Pyrophosphate to Improve a Translucent Clay Simulate. In Geo-Chicago, pp. 83-93 [link]
- Jatav, S., & Joshi, Y. M. (2014), Chemical stability of Laponite in aqueous media, Applied Clay Science, 97, 72-77 [link]
- Kroon, M., Vos, W.L., Wegdam, G.H., (1998), Structure and formation of a gel of colloidal disks. Physical Review E., 57, 1962–1970 [link]
- Wallace, J. F. and Rutherford, C. J. ( 2015), Geotechnical Properties of Laponite Rd, Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 38, No. 5, 2015, pp. 574-587 [link]
