Fernandes Júnior, Valter JoséLima, Roberto Rodrigues Cunha2017-04-182017-04-182017-03-03LIMA, Roberto Rodrigues Cunha. Aplicação de argilas modificadas no abrandamento de águas duras. 2017. 154f. Tese (Doutorado em Ciência e Engenharia de Materiais) - Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Terra, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2017.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/22683The need to diversify the ways of treating water from different sources and for different purposes becomes more urgent every day, especially when considering the economic and social impacts associated with management of an irreplaceable natural resource. Clays can be applied for softening hard water, expanding perspectives of water use, with the development of sustainable technological devices and processes. In this study, in addition to those that were kept untreated, bentonite samples were activated with HCl and H2SO4, while vermiculite samples were modified with HCl, NaOH and NaCl, for adsorption tests of Ca2+ ions using standard calcium solution and real hard water adequately collected from wells in the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. A reduction of 22.8% in the hardness of the standard calcium solution was verified with H2SO4-activated bentonite, while higher efficiency was verified with vermiculites treated with HCl, NaOH and NaCl, with hardness reductions on the standard calcium solution of 43.6%, 46.3% and 57.5%, respectively, and reduction of up to 45.2% in the hardness of the field-collected samples, with NaCl-modified vermiculite, which generated the best results. It has been proven that it is possible to recondition the vermiculite, and that electrolyte concentration and successive treatment influence the adsorptive capacity of this NaCl-modified clay. Vermiculite saline treatment can be performed simultaneously with a combination of Na+ and K+ as exchangeable cations. Clay modifications were tracked with XRD, SEM, TG, DTG, EDX and BET analyzes, as well as the determination of physicochemical parameters.Acesso AbertoBentonitaVermiculitaÁgua duraTecnologia ambientaldoctoralThesisCNPQ::ENGENHARIAS::ENGENHARIA DE MATERIAIS E METALURGICA