Mechanical Properties of Chemically Modified Clay

Marta S.S. Gusmão, Priya Gopal, Ilaria Siloi, Stefano Curtarolo, Marco Fornari, Marco Buongiorno Nardelli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Serpentine clay minerals are found in many geological settings. The rich diversity, both in chemical composition and crystal structure, alters the elastic behavior of clay rocks significantly, thus modifying seismic and sonic responses to shaley sequences. Computation of the elastic properties is a useful tool to characterize this diversity. In this paper we use first principles methods to compare the mechanical properties of lizardite Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4, a polymorph of serpentine family, with the new compounds derived by substituting Mg ions with isovalent elements from different chemical groups. New compounds are first selected according to chemical and geometrical stability criteria, then full elastic tensors, bulk and shear modulii, and acoustic velocities are obtained. Overall, the new compounds have a lower anisotropy and are less resistant to mechanical deformation compared to the prototype, thus providing valuable information regarding chemical composition and mechanical properties in these systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number13698
JournalScientific Reports
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2019

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