Applied Clay Science, 5 (1990) 123-133 123

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

The pH of clay suspensions in the field and

laboratory, and methods of measurement of their
pH

W.D. Keller and Keith Matlack .1

Department of Geology, Universityof Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (U.S.A.)
(Received September 6, 1989; accepted after revision February 9, 1990)

ABSTRACT

Keller, W.D. and Matlack, K., 1990. The pH of clay suspensions in the field and laboratory, and
methods of measurement of their pH. Appl. Clay Sci., 5:123-133.

The pH of water standing in pools in deposits of kaolin-familyClays tends to be low, i.e. pH 4 to 5.

Streams draining such clay-containingareas commonly also yield pH values below 7, whereas streams
flowing over primary, and clay-parent, silicate rocks typically yield a pH of 7 or higher - hence testing
the pH of streams may aid in clay-prospecting in igneous country-rock areas.
Laboratory-prepared suspensions of clays, simulative of natural clay sols, are acid within the kaolin
family but may be alkaline with Na-smectite. Measurements of pH made on the visually clear super-
natants of clay sols using colorimetric test paper and glass-electrode methods indicate that the colori-
metric method yields the most representative results; apparently the multitude of clay-surface prop-
erties and charge effects from clay in even the visually clear sol override and mask the specific electrical
properties by which an electrometric method measures the pH value of a clean ionic-molecular solution.

INTRODUCTION

The pH of aqueous effluent from rocks, and water (including glacial milk)
flowing across various kinds of rocks, is influenced by the composition of the
rocks. The pH of streams and lakes on igneous silicate rocks was observed in
a project studied in 1960 to be commonly above 6.5, and in western United
States to be above 7 (25 years ago before acid rain was effective). For exam-
ple, the pH of the water (measured with a portable glass electrode) in
Manzanita Lake, Lassen National Park, California, was 7.8; that at Jackson
Lake, Wyoming, 7.7-7.8; Rio Grande River in the San Juan Mountains, Col-
orado, 7.6; Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, 7.35; Lake Superior north of Du-
luth, Minnesota, 7.0; and Lake Nipissing at North Bay, Ontario, 6.6 (Keller,
*~Present address: School of Geophysical Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
30332 (U.S.A.).

0169-1317/90/$03.50 © 1990 - - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

124 W.D. KELLER AND K. MATLACK

1960). The pH of this "hydrolysis water" in contact with the rock reflected
the abrasion pH of the rock (Stevens, 1934; Stevens and Carron, 1948; Grant,
1969 ). The pH of hydrothermal waters also reflects silicate hydrolysis, as at
Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National park, 9.2, or the effect of their
sulfate-dominated solutes, e.g., at the "Sulfur Works" in Lassen National Park,
2.9 (Keller, 1960).
Because the pH's of the waters draining these silicate rocks are relatively
high, it is presumed that they represent essentially the abrasion pH of the
silicates alone because similar results were yielded by testing more than 300
silicate rocks in the laboratory (Keller and Reesman, 1963a). Contrariwise,
if those rock-water systems had included oxidizing sulfide minerals, coal or
peat beds, or effluent from kaolin and organic-rich rocks, the acidizing effects
of these other petrologic materials would have significantly lowered the pH.
The pH of glacial milks from North America and Europe was typically 6.4
to 7.5, except in Norway where it ranged, in 1960, from 4.1 to 4.5, due pre-
sumably to the effect of rain acidified by combustion gases from the British
Isles. Rock slurries, i.e. artificially prepared by pulverizing rocks collected
from the glacial terrain, yielded pH 8.2 to 9.4, including the Norway rocks
(Keller and Reesman, 1963b ).
Although other types of clay-mineral silicate deposits and argillaceous rocks
also yield characteristic pH values in their clear suspensions, in their turbid
suspensions, in the water on wet clay faces at outcrops, and effluent from the
rocks, these were not at that time studied along with the primary silicate rocks
in either the field or laboratory. Such clay-conditioned pH's are important,
however, both scientifically and practically. For example, in reconnaissance
prospecting for hydrothermal clay deposits in volcanic arch areas of Mexico,
a stream draining an area containing hydrothermal clay may be found to reg-
ister pH 5, whereas a neighboring tributary flowing over only volcanic rock
may yield pH 6 to 6.5. A roll of colorimetric pH test paper carried in the
pocket thus may serve for testing the streams as a desirable supplement to the
hammer for a clay prospector.
Although measurement of pH by colorimetric methods may appear to a
classic chemist who works only on "clean, pure" solutions, and uses only elec-
trode measurements in the laboratory, to be as crude as a geologist's hammer,
electrode measurements made on the pH of even optically clear supernatant
liquids above clay residues may yield misleading values, a fact long known by
soil scientists.
This report has 2 objectives: ( 1 ) to document pH values of water in pools
on clay (mostly kaolin ) deposits in both the field and in laboratory-prepared
suspensions; and (2) to consider some problems of methods usable for mea-
surement of clay sols in the field and laboratory.
THE pH OF CLAYSUSPENSIONS 125

pH M E A S U R E M E N T S AT R E F R A C T O R Y CLAY D E P O S I T S

During 1963, before evidence for acid rain was demonstrated in interior
USA, samples of representative refractory clays were collected from major
producing localities, and also the pH was measured of water standing in pools
present in those pits (mines), using pHydrion paper to measure the pH (see
Table I).
The obvious conclusion from Table I is that water in contact with kaolin-
ite-halloysite deposits in the field has a characteristic pH, measured by col-
orimetric test paper, in the range 3.5 to 5. This is low in comparison to natural
(not rain-acidified) water flowing over primary silicate rocks, as was shown
in the preceding data.
Whether the acidity in clay-pit water represents equilibrium chemistry, ki-
netic state, abrasion pH, silicate hydrolysis, or a mixture of them may be de-
bated, or may vary form place to place, but the "bottom-line" is a moderately
low pH. It is sufficiently regular that it may be a positive indication helpful at
times in reconnaissance prospecting for clay mineral deposits where the coun-
try rock is igneous. Alternatively, however, in a sedimentary-rock terrain, if
sulfide-containing coal or shale is present and undergoing weathering, acidity
from such a source masks the effect from clay.
Some 23 years after the field data on natural, kaolin clay-pit waters were
collected, curiosity whether solution-suspensions prepared in the laboratory
would simulate field occurrences prompted additional laboratory study. Ten
grams of bulk clay from field deposits were crushed in an iron mortar to frag-
ments about 4 m m in diameter and fines, rather than pulverizing them in a
grinder, thereby retaining some of the bulk clay properties. The crushed ma-
terial was stirred in 75 ml of deionized distilled water in a plastic beaker open
to dissolution of atmospheric gases at room temperature. Most of the clay
slaked further, but slaking by flint clay (slaking resistant) and high-alumina,
non-plastic rocks, was minimal, i.e., characteristic of their behavior under
field conditions of wetting. After the preparations stood for hours or several
days, as reported with the data, pH measurements were made of the visually
clear, supernatant liquid, or of the liquid filtered through a 0.1-/tin Millipore
filter.
The pH was measured by several methods: by a glass electrode (Orion
brand) regularly calibrated against standard buffer solutions; and by colori-
metric test papers (easier to use in field geology) such as regular pHydrion,
Lo Ion pHydrion, and ColorPHast brands (Table II). The differences in re-
sults obtained by using these different methods are significant and will be
discussed later.
126 W.D. KELLERAND K. MATLACK

TABLE I

Refractory clay localities

pH
Missouri
A.P. Green Semi-flint clay 4.5
Mexico, Audrain County
Kaiser Refractories, semi-flint clay 5.0
Mexico, Audrain County
Hare Pit, semi-flint, Mexico district 4.5-5.0
Flint clay, Means property 4.5-5.0
New Florence, Montgomery County
Burley-flint pit 4.0
Swiss, Gasconade County
Klossner Pit, boehmite and diaspore 4.4
Swiss, Gasconade County
Krull pit, diaspore 4.1
Swiss, Gasconade County
Farnberg pit, flint and diaspore 4.5
Gurley Ridge, Gasconade County
Forbes flint-diaspore pit 3.5-4.0
Rolla, Phelps County
Dolomite stone quarry 6.8
near Forbes pit
Limestone quarry, 9 miles south of 6.8-7.0
Mexico district
Auxvasse, Callaway County
Pennsylvania
Semi-plastic clay 4.0-4.5
Curwensville, PA
Black nodule clay, Chase pit 3.0-3.5
(slightly marcasitic)
West Decatur, PA
Semi-plastic clay, Kanouffpit 4.0
West Decatur, PA
North Carolina
Kaolin-halloysite mine 3.5-4.0
Brushy Creek, NC
Kaolin-halloysite mine 4.0
Gusher Knob, NC
Georgia
Kaolin pit, A.P. Green 3.5
Americus, GA
Alabama
Kaolin, O.W. Green mine 3.5-4.0
Eufala, AL
Kaolin pit 4.0
Montevallo, AL
Kaolin, Riverside Clay Products # 1 4.0
Pit # 2 3.5-4.0
Dolomite Quarry 6.8-7.0
Riverside, AL
THE pH OF CLAYSUSPENSIONS 127

TABLE I (continued)

pH
Arkansas
Kaolin, Rauch pit 4.0-4.5
Sweet Home, AR
Kaolin, Acme Co. deposit 3.5
Perla, AR
Kentucky
Halloysite in road cut 3.0-3.7
Stanford, KY
Indiana
Halloysite mine 4.5-5,0
Gardner Ridge, IN
Mexico
Halloysite during genesis 3.5-3.7
Hot spring, Michoacan, Mexico
(Keller et al., 1971 )

D I S C U S S I O N O F pH M E A S U R E M E N T S A N D C O M P A R I S O N W I T H FIELI D A T A

Halloysite
The pH of clear supernatant water over halloysite in the laboratory essen-
tially duplicates, or lies within the range of, the values observed in the field
(3.5-4.5) where measured by regular pHydrion paper. Likewise, halloysite
forming today in the road cut at Stanford, Kentucky, (Keller et al., 1966),
and in a hot spring in Michoacan, Mexico (Keller et al., 1971 ), yielded pH
values below 4; some sulphate (sulphuric acid) present at both occurrences
no doubt contributed to the acidity. It is concluded haUoysite is "at home" in
an environment about pH 4.5, or lower. Measurements by Lo Ion pHydrion
and ColorPHast showed higher pH values, but not so high as that by the glass
electrode, which was at least 2 pH units higher than with regular pHydrion
paper. These inconsistencies will be discussed in a further section.

Kaolinite

Similar to its polymorph halloysite, kaolinite suspensions in the laboratory

yielded pH measurements (with regular pHydrion paper) in the range 3.9 to
4.6, with 2 exceptions. The kaolins from Ockrilla, DDR, and Ione, California,
yield slightly higher pH's; the hand specimens as collected from them are gritty,
suggesting that minor residues of parent rock remain in the clay.
Hint clays, whose origin ideally represents kaolinite crystallized with mu-
128 W.D. KELLERAND K. MATLACK

TABLE II
pH measurements of visually clear, supernatant liquid over settled clay suspensions of diverse clay rocks
and minerals sampled from deposits of historical record; days elapsed between time of preparation and
measurement, and methods of measurement are indicated

Glass-electrode Lo Ion Regular Color-Phast

pHydrion pHydrion
4 11-13
days days

Halloysile-rich
Spruce Pine, N.C. 6.63 6.54 5.4 4.3 5.4
Gardner Ridge, Indiana 6.68 6.63 5.5 4.3 5.6
Kaolinite-rich
Zettlitz, Czechoslovakia 6.33 6.44 4.6 4.6 5.7
Cornwall, U.K., sandy 5.67 5.76 5 4.5 5.8
Cornwall, U.K., clear 4.93 4.80 4-4.5 4.4 5.5
Halviggan, Cornwall 6.23 6.02 4.9-5 4.5 5.5
Meeks Mine, GA 4.53 4.74 4.3 3.9 5.3
Hodges Mine, GA 5.25 5.10 4.5 4.4 5.3
Mine 50, GA-K, GA 5.68 5.43 4.5-5 4.3 5.4
Huber, Montmorence, GA 5.40 5.18 4.5 4.0 5.5
Thiele, Dixon Mine, GA 4.16 4.07 4.0 4.2 5.5
Huber, Wrens, GA 4.95 4.74 4.5-5 4.0 5.4
Purvis Mine, GA 4.58 4.76 4.4 4.3 5.4
Murfreesboro, AR 5.05 5.39 4.5 4.1 5.4
lone, CA 7.70 7.77 6 5.5 5.8
Ockrilla, DDR 7.06 7.17 6.5-7 4.9 5.6
Ball Clay, KY-TN 5.33 5.28 5-5.5 4.0 5.2
Plastic Fire Clay, MO 7.95 7.08 5.6 4.5 5.5
Flint clay, kaolinitic
Schaefferkoetter pit, MO 6.53 6.56 5,3 4.4 5.6
Bucker pit, MO 6.63 6.67 4.5 4.1 5.4
Maher pit, MO 6.99 6.86 5,5-6 4.5 5.5
New Florence, soft, MO 7.14 6.78 5.5 4.6 5.5
Saltcoats, Scotland 6.98 6.85 5.4 4.4 5.6
Olliers, France 7.50 7.58 5.5-5.6 5.0 5.6
Hammanskrall, Africa 5.69 5.87 4.4 4.5 5.5
Hydrothermal origin
Sombrerete, Mexico 6.96 7.37 5 4.5 5.6
San Luis Potosi, Mexico 5.59 5.81 5.0-5.1 4.0 5.5
Guanajuato, Mexico 7.58 7.70 5.5 5.1 5.7
Dickite
Ouray, CO. 3.81 3.68 3.5 3.7 4
lllite-rtch
Silver Hill Shale, MT 8.07 8.28 7.5 5.5-6 7.1
Morris Shale, IL 3.72 3.74 3.5 3.5 4.9
Fithian shale, IL 3.35 3.40 3.2 3.4 3.6
Smectite
Wyoming bentonite, SWy- 1 9.06 8-9 8 7.0-7.5
Arizona bentonite, SAz- 1 7.9 7.3-7.5 4.5-5 6.2
High-alumina "clays"
First Grade diaspore, MO 6.68 6.61 5.5 4.0 5.4
Weipa, Australia, bauxite 6.44 6.39 5.5-5.7 4.4 5.5
Arkansas bauxite 4.16 4.18 3.5-3.7 3.5 4.0
THE pH OF CLAY SUSPENSIONS 129

tual boundary texture (From a colloid gel "magma", as interpreted by Keller,

1981 ), regularly yield supernatants at pH 4.6 or less, except for the Olliers,
France, specimen: at 5.0.
Hydrothermal kaolins from volcanic parent rock in Mexico yield suspen-
sions with pH 4.5 or less, whereas the clay derived from hornblende-chlorite
schist at Guanajuato produces a sol with a slightly higher pH at 5.1.

Dickite

Dickite from the hydrothermal occurrence at Ouray, Colorado, generates

an acidic (pH 3.7 ) supernatant liquid. This specimen flocculates quickly after
stirring, thus presumably producing not much of a colloidal fraction. For the
same reason, speculatively, a glass electrode measuring the pH is scarcely
modified by the scanty colloid fraction, and therefore also records a low pH.

Illite

Illite in the Silver Hill shale (Source Clays Repository) yields a relatively
high pH at 5.5-6, and above 8 with the glass electrode, which interpretatively
is consistent with its parent mineral which contains combined NH2 ion
(Keller, 1986). The Fithian, Illinois, shale contains even more NH~- than the
Silver Hill shale, but oxidizing FeS2 minerals also present in the Fithian shale
produce acid that would lower the pH of its sol; presumably the same condi-
tion likewise applies to the Morris shale. Thus clay "mineral" specimens in
the laboratory never divest themselves and properties from their genetic rock
heritage, wherefore it behooves clay mineralogists never to forget these "facts
of geologic life" when working with the representative clay "minerals" (rocks).

Smectite

Because of the very high dispersibility properties of the Wyoming Na-ben-

tonite, only slightly less than 1 g of it was stirred in the 75 ml standard volume
of water, but even this small amount never settled out completely during the
course of the experiment. It is not surprising, therefore, that the pH of the
bentonite sol (gel?) was 8. The Arizona Ca-bentonite settled slowly but effec-
tively, and left a clear supernatant liquid at pH 4.5-5.

High-alumina "clays'"

Diaspore and bauxite, aluminous affiliates and end products of clay weath-
ering, scarcely slake in water, and correspondingly leave acid (pH 3.5-4.4)
supernatants in their laboratory suspensions.
130 W.D. KELLER A N D K. MATLACK

COLORIMETRIC VS. ELECTROMETRIC METHODS FOR MEASURING pH OF

CLAY-WATER SYSTEMS

Although pH measurements also were recorded of the supernatant liquid

of laboratory-prepared clay suspensions using two other colorimetric test ma-
terials, and an electrometric glass-electrode, attention has been directed only
to the data obtained by regular pHydrion papers, even where it differed sig-
nificantly from the electrometric data, for two reasons. First, the laboratory
data could be compared to those obtained in 1963 when pHydrion paper was
used in the field. Second, the colorimetric data appear to be more meaningful
for describing the pH of the supernatant liquid (a complex! ) over clays than
the numbers yielded by the electrometric method! Such a statement, if not
rejected immediately by classical chemists, comes as a shock to those who
work only with clean, relatively simple solutions in the laboratory. Further-
more, lest the statement disqualify this report as being worse than worthless
heresy to not only most chemists, but also to chemica"~y oriented clay miner-
alogists who made an A grade in the course in analytical chemistry, please
read a bit further with the promise of an open-minded survey of measuring
pH. Astoundingly, several chemists of high stature have revised their thinking
about measuring pH of visually clear, supernatant liquid clay sols after re-
viewing the facts presented.
Electrometric apparatus can, and does, measure with fidelity the part of the
system into which it is projected. It reveals the pH of a classically clean, sim-
ple chemical solution, but not of clear, supernatant clay sols because these
inherently are not simple or single-phase, even when filtered through a 0.1/zm
filter, or when they meet the "legal" requirements of clear water under engi-
neering or bureaucratic specifications. Typically a Tyndall cone can be ob-
served when a beam of light is sent through such a visually clear sol.
Consider realistically the maze of constituents in such a clay sol. Besides
H20, carbonate and bicarbonate complexes dissolved from the air, plus com-
monly minute chloride, fluoride, sulphate, nitrogen-oxides, radicals, and not
uncommonly ammonium ion (Keller, 1986), also sub-microscopic tiny frag-
ments of clay minerals are dispersed in the supernatant. Fragmented clay-
mineral crystals characteristically expose ions of O, H, OH, Si, A1, Fe, Mg,
Na, Ca, and K at their broken surfaces. The fragments are variably excess-
charged, and they energetically hold about them a counterbalancing electric
field in the liquid. Even ideal crystals of clay minerals carry surface charges,
they variously proliferate ionic exchange, they maintain a Gouy double-layer
charge, and they are physically adsorbed especially onto other silicates, i.e.
glass in a glass electrode such as is thrust into the liquid for the purpose of
measuring what (?): from this bewildering complex, the charges that suppos-
edly reveal the simple concentrations of H + ions! It is no wonder that the
single-purpose electrodes yield confusing results. Experimentally the reading
THE pH OF CLAY SUSPENSIONS 131

from an electrometric device inserted into a clay-sol supernatant slowly drifts

in response over a period for several minutes before slowing sufficiently that
the reading can be approximated. Presumably during this interval of time
absorptions, ion exchanges, surface modifications, and diffusions are simul-
taneously taking place about the surface of the instrument electrode. Concen-
tration of hydrogen ions alone and/or pH has been essentially lost in the
process.
The non-systematic variation in pH, measured by the glass-electrode
method, between clay suspensions standing 4 days, and then again after 11-
13 days, may be due to at least three possibilities. The acidities might be sig-
nificantly(?) different at those two different time spans but we doubt that
this is the explanation. Instead, it is likely that either, (a) the ion-plus-suspen-
sion environment occurring about the electrode was different in sol proper-
ties at the two times, or 9b) more likely that the precision of measurement of
clay sols by a glass electrode is deceptively not to the second decimal point,
as it would be with a "clean" solution.
Soil chemists have recognized complexities such as these for many years
and compensated for them by using a CaC12 solution technique (C.M. Wood-
ruff, pers. commun., 1989 ). Other professional chemists have addressed the
problem in publications such as, "Use and Abuse of pH measurements"
(Feldman, 1956); "Influence of Colloidal Charge on Response of pH and
Reference Electrodes: the Suspension Effect" (Brezinski, 1983); "Methods
for Reliable pH Measurements of Precipitation Samples" (Sisterson and
Wurfelt, 1984); and "pH Glass Electrode and its Mechanism" (Cheng, 1989 ).
It appears to most of us who have been concerned with the properties of
natural clay-water systems that the colorimetric "chemical" indicators, in
contrast to the electrical indicators, respond most effectively to the solution
phase of the sol. These are the parts of it most likely to be modified by factors
in the "geo" or earth-phase environments (soils, ground water, weathering
and plants). Even though the precision of colorimetric measurement is nota-
bly lower than that of electrometric measurement, the actual combination of
geochemical properties of clay sols may be more diffuse than any single prop-
erty. The natural environment rarely is simple!
Optimistically, future research directed toward defining and measuring es-
sentials of natural systems may yield methods and answers desired but not
now understood. Until then it appears, to repeat, that colorimetric methods
of measuring the pH of clay sols in the field and laboratory may be most
meaningful, even if not most specific.

CONCLUSIONS

The pH of the supernatant fractions of clay sols in natural field occurrences

and in laboratory suspensions tends to be on the acid side, pH 4-5, for the
132 W.D. KELLER AND K. MATLACK

kaolin family of minerals. These are obviously those composed of essential

HAISiO. Effluent drainage from such deposits in the field may be more acid
than where the waters drain primary silicate rocks, or carbonates of Ca and
Mg.
Illites and smectites, which contain Na, NH4 and K in mobile positions,
yield somewhat higher pH's in their sols, i.e. 5.5-8.
Until indicators more efficiently adapted to measuring pH of clay sols are
developed, colorimetric methods appear to be most meaningful. Fortunately
they are more easily carried as geological field equipment than more refined
equipment or processes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research for this report was supported by NSF Grants EAR 8119592 and
G9159. We thank K.L. Cheng, D.W. Houseknecht, W.D. Johns, and
C.E. Weaver for helpful suggestions.

REFERENCES

Brezinski, D.P., 1983. Influence of colloidal charge on response o f p H and reference electrodes:
the suspension effect. Talanta, 30: 347-354.
Cheng, K.l., 1989. pH glass electrode and its mechanism. In: J.T Stock and M.V. Orna (Edi-
tors), Am. Chem. Soc. Symp. Ser., 390: 286-302.
Feldman, I., 1956. Use and abuse o f p H measurements. Anal. Chem. 28:1859-1865.
Grant, W.H., 1969. Abrasion pH, an index of chemical weathering. Clays Clay Miner., 17:151-
155.
Keller, W.D., 1960. Acidity-alkalinity of surface drainage waters as related to underlying sili-
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Keller, W.D., 1981. The sedimentology of flint clay. J. Sediment. Petrol, 51:0233-0244.
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minerals and rocks, part II. J. Sediment. Petrol., 33: 426-437.
Keller, W.D. and Reesman, A.L., 1963b. Glacial milks and their laboratory-simulated counter-
parts. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 74: 61-76.
Keller, W.D., McGrain, P., Reesman, A.L. and Saum, N.M., 1966. Observations on the origin
of endellite in Kentucky, and their extension to "Indianaite". Proc. Thirteenth Nat. Conf.
Clays and Clay Minerals. Pergamon Press, London, pp. 107-120.
Sisterson, D.L. and Wurfelt, B.E., 1984. Methods for reliable pH measurements for precipita-
tion samples. Int. J. Environ. Anal. Chem., 18: 143-165.
Stevens, R.E., 1934. Studies on the alkalinity of some silicate minerals, li.S. Geol. Surv. Prof.
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THE pH OF CLAY SUSPENSIONS 133

NOTE ADDED IN PROOF

In a publication which appeared while our manuscript was in press, a paper on "Suspension
Effect In Potentiometry" by chemists Yang, S.X., Cheng, K.L., Kurtz, L.T. and Peck, T.R.,
(Particulate Science and Technology, 7:139-152, 1989 ) reports, in part, "our results exemplify
that the Nernst equation for equilibrium thermodynamics and redox reactions has been mis-
used in non-equilibrium and nonfaradaic processes". Their carefully controlled laboratory ex-
periments on clay suspensions support and strengthen our field-oriented inferences based on
numerous geologic materials. Their paper is recommended for reading by clay mineralogists.