China Clay

[Endry Lim]

Below is one of my simplified opinion on the characteristic of China Clay which is one of the widely used ceramics in the industry even till now. I beleive that this will all be the root of studies for advanced ceramics.

 

China clay

a) Based on researches done, the composition of this clay amounting to 95% of Kaolinite and only a minimal amount of mica which is 5%. This means that the clay will generate major properties of Kaolinite.

As for the particle size, it is not as fine as the ball clay.

c) Every clay has its own plasticity level which made them special in their own way. Here, we can see that the plasticity of this clay is way lower compared to ball clay because this type of clay is made up of its own elements more and packed so accordingly which eventually made it difficult and hard to be manipulated.

d) As this is the ceramic, the cation exchange capacity of this type of clay is very low. The main exchangeable ions are Hydrogen, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium and also Potassium.

e) This type of clay contains no organic matter and furthermore having a less fine grains lead it to have a low unfired strength.

f) As for its colour, we can see that it is white in raw and fired condition due to the low content of iron oxide in this type of clay.

 

 

References

1. Hurlbut, Cornelius S., Klien, Cornelis (1985) Manual of Mineralogy 20th edition Wiley. Page 428-430

2. Deer, W.A.,Howie, R.A and Zussman J (1922) An introduction to the rock forming minerals (2nd edition) Harlow: Longman.

 

[khallows]

China clay? Haha. I'm confused as to why this is up here. Confused yet interested none the less.