Determination of the degree of sodic modification of bentonite using response surface analysis

Sodium modification is an effective approach for enhancing the properties of bentonite and reducing its usage in pellets. However, due to limited research, the relationship between the physicochemical properties of bentonite and its green ball properties remains unclear, and the optimal degree of modification for bentonite has rarely been discussed. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel research idea: to exploring the correlation between the five most commonly used indexes for evaluating the physicochemical properties of bentonite (water absorption, methylene blue index, swell capacity, colloid index, and cation exchange capacity) and the most frequently used evaluation indexes for assessing green ball performance (drop strength), in order to determine the optimal degree of sodium modification of bentonite for pellets. The response surface methodology was employed in this paper to investigate the quantitative relationship between the five indexes and the green ball drop strength. The results demonstrate that when the drop strength of the green ball reaches its optimal level, the five commonly used indicators of bentonite are as follows: water absorption is 545.27%, methylene blue index is 22.94g/100g, swell capacity is 72.36ml/g, colloid index is 35.95ml/g, and cation exchange capacity is 68.93mmol/100g. Under these conditions, it has been the predicted value for green ball drop strength is determined to be 12.88, which exceeds the maximum value in the experimental conditions by 48.05%. The study determined the optimal degree of sodium modification for bentonite in pelletizing, providing valuable guidance for optimizing the properties of bentonite.