Effect of dry grinding on chemically modified kaolin

•Kaolin was intercalated with potassium acetate and dimethyl sulfoxide.•Grinding significantly altered the crystalline structure of kaolin.•After grinding, dehydroxylation temperature was shifted to lower values.•Kaolin structure fully changed in a relatively short time (30 min).

The effect of dry grinding on the morphology and structure of kaolin particles treated with potassium acetate (KAc) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has been investigated. After treatment with KAc, the d-spacing of kaolin increased from 0.72 to 1.03, 1.30, and 1.38 nm due to the combined effects of humidity and orientation of KAc molecules. The d-spacing was increased to 1.13 nm in the case of DMSO treatment. A combination of XRD, TGA, and FT-IR showed that the crystalline structure of kaolin–DMSO and kaolin–KAc were significantly altered by grinding. The intensity of XRD diffraction peaks of ground samples was decreased due to the deterioration of the crystalline structure, and for longer grinding times those peaks almost disappeared. After grinding, the dehydroxylation temperature generally shifted to lower values and a smaller weight loss was observed. The variations of particle size and surface characteristics were also investigated.