The Hinckley index for kaolinites

The (02,11) X-ray diffraction band from a low-defect kaolinite from Cornwall (Hinckley index HI = 1·22) was examined to determine the defect structure. No combination of interlayer translations and admixing of dickite layers accurately modelled the observed diffraction pattern. Calculated diffraction patterns which gave a good agreement with the shape, position, and intensity of the observed peaks, uniformly had inter-peak intensities which were too weak. By treating the kaolinite as a mixture of low-defect (HI = 1·76) and moderate-defect (HI = 0·29) kaolinites, the agreement between the observed and calculated patterns was improved substantially. The existence of a mixture of two kaolinites was also found for a number of low-defect samples (HI > 0·4) from Georgia and Cornwall, and may be of even wider occurrence. The HI, which is very sensitive to the inner-peak intensities, does not estimate the types or abundances of various structural defects (the classical “crystallinity”), but is related directly, in a non-linear fashion, to the proportions of the two kinds of kaolinite which are present in the sample.