Vermiculite

Vermiculite, a rarely occurring mineral, is a natural raw material from the class of phyllosilicates, in which it belongs to the clay mineral family. Chemically, the light brown to grey raw vermiculite consists of an aluminium-iron-magnesium silicate compound. It resembles mica minerals both structurally and in appearance, forming flaky crystals like them. The crystal lattice is laid out in several layers, between which crystal water is intercalated, which then escapes when heated and leads to the swelling effect.

This property of swelling is called exfoliation. Expanded vermiculite is a worm-shaped, curved, accordion-like granulate with millions of tiny air layers, which give rise to the high insulating properties and the low weight with low bulk density. Exfoliation takes place at temperatures between 700 - 1000 °C without the addition of auxiliary materials. The volume of the vermiculite particles increases by about 15 to 20 times compared to the original volume.

Advantages of vermiculite

Sterile, bacteria and germ free, heat insulating, clean and dry processed, low dust, neutral taste, naturally pure, pH neutral, no fibres, low weight per unit area, free-flowing, mineral product, non-flammable, non-toxic, no disposal as residual amounts can be mixed with the soil to loosen the soil, stores many times its own weight in water, stores excess nutrients (ion exchange capacity).

We produce two different grain sizes in Bulgaria. We offer you only raw vermiculite, but we can arrange partners for exfoliation.

The two different dimensions of vermiculite fractions are: Micron (from 0.25 mm to 0.71 mm) and Superfine /SF - from 0.3 mm to 1 mm.

The chemical composition corresponds to the rough formula: