Copper-sepiolites exchanged at different levels have been studied by ESR, IR, and TG. The results indicate that in the unheated samples the Cu2+ ions are located in octahedral edge positions. After dehydration, the Cu2+ ions occur in two positions with different environments. Some of the Cu2+ ions lose the two molecules of coordinated water in one step, at low dehydration temperatures, and adopt a square pyramidal geometry. Other Cu2+ ions lose the coordination water in two steps, at lower temperature than the natural sepiolite, and adopt a tetrahedral symmetry.

The kinetics of the dehydration of ethanol on acidic Al3+-exchanged sepiolite has been studied. The product distribution indicates that the formation of diethylether and ethylene takes place by a series of consecutive and parallel reactions. A mechanism for the formation of both products has been derived by studying the influence of different operational variables on the reaction rates.

Five glasses in the system SiO2 · CaO · P2O5 have been synthesised via sol-gel method. The textural properties of the calcined glasses have been studied using mercury intrusion and N2 adsorption porosimetries. The glasses with higher SiO2 content showed lower pore volume, smaller diameters in the meso- and macropore regions, and higher surface areas. The pore morphology in the mesopore range was influenced by the SiO2 content, where there was a transition from ink bottle to cylinder shaped pores.