GLOBAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & ENGINEERING Vol. 01 (2020) 15-21 www.knowvel.com Original Research Article THE ELEMENTARY CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTHILL CLAY FOR COMPOSITE MATERIALS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS SURESH ALUVIHARA 1 , C. S. KALPAGE 1 , P. W. S. K. BANDARANAYAKE 2 ABSTRACT Anthill clay is a distinct soil/clay genre among common soil types because of the stockpiling method. The small particles are carried in and erected an anthill by a small creature that it is called as termite. In generally, clay is a conspicuous raw material for industrial applications greatly and the assay of expediencies of anthill clay for advanced material applications were the prospects of the existing research. Carefully collected anthill clay samples were characterized under the physically and chemically using standard procedures and instruments. The mechanical characteristics of prepared bricks from anthill clays under 800 0 C were investigated. As the major outcomes of the existing investigation of raw clays, there were looked to 5.56 of PH value, 15% of natural moisture content, gap graded and symmetrically distributed arrangement of grains, 60% finer particle percentage (<0.075mm) according to the weight, composition of Fe, Ti, Ba and K based compounds including Fe minerals with large sorption capacity for other metals. In addition that 25% of water absorption, 2.62 of bulk specific gravity, 65% of apparent porosity, 21 MPa compressive strength and 0.4 MPa splitting tensile strength were observed with respect to the bricks which were prepared from the anthill clay. Based on the behaviors of such anthill clay it should be an influential material in the advanced material manufacturing in the industrial purposes such as the water treatments, rigid materials and refractors. Keywords: Anthill clay, Physic-chemical characteristics, Mechanical characteristics, Grain size, Industrial applications AUTHOR AFFILIATION 1 Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, 20400, Sri Lanka 2 Department of Physics, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, 20400, Sri Lanka CORRESPONDENCE Suresh Aluvihara, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, 20400, Sri Lanka Email: sureshaluvihare@gmail.com PUBLICATION HISTORY Received: June 14, 2020 Accepted: June 14, 2020 ARTICLE ID: GJSE-CP-03 1. INTRODUCTION Anthill clay is some sort of different clay variety among well-known clay species because of the availability of anthill clay. When considering the origin and formation of anthill clay, the initial factors would be similar with the origins of other clay types such as the transportation and accumulation of sediments due to the rain, wind or gravitation force. But the pattern of availability is exactly significant because the anthill is prepared by termites using some of available clay type at around the location. Therefore, the characteristics of the anthill clay would be differing based upon the location. As the literature review of the existing industrial uses of other different clay varieties the following uses could be highlighted as the dominant examples [1-6]. • Pottery industries • Ceramic and porcelain industry • Manufacturing of building materials Since the ancient applications were limited for mechanical applications, currently most of new innovations are being processed regarding most of different clay varieties beyond the primary uses of such clays. Among the well-known modern investigations of clays, applications of the industry of water treatment gained high benefits because the water pollution has been detected as a huge matter in the current world. According to the literature reviews on the recent researches of the developments of following important approaches were emphasized as the important outcomes [1-10]. • Removal of heavy metals from the contaminated/polluted water • Removal of some pathogens from contaminated water • Removals of unnecessary or hazardous ions from waste water According to the working explanations of the most of above tasks, the principle working process is the adsorption. Adsorption is a chemical process which is occurred due to the electrostatic forces of both attracting compound and attaching compound. Therefore, the adsorption process is surface based chemical process and it is not happened any penetration in to the attached material. Clay is usually known as a group of minerals with the silicate minerals and some of ferrous minerals. Due to the diversities in the chemical compositions, clays have obtained a series of distinguished properties including some