Interaction between saponite and cationic, zwitterionic and nonionic surfactants

Saponite is a commercially available synthetic clay mineral that can easily be dispersed in water to a transparent solution. With increasing concentration the solutions show a sol-gel transition around 2 wt.%. The gels are rather stiff and have a high yield value. The saponite particles are present in the suspension as very thin bilayers with a thickness of about 10 Å and a diameter of about 500 Å. The bilayers have a relatively high negative...