“…In this step, ratio 2:1 showed a moderate increase in the temperature required for the removal of the interlayer water in contrast to the other ratios which presented similar behaviours (small endothermic peak in DTA at around 207°C). The second region in TG (from 215 to 300°C) showed a very slight decrease in mass which was higher for lower ratios and could be associated with the beginning of the removal of the OH − bonded to Al 3+ (Stanimirova et al, 1999;Yang et al, 2002;Vágvölgyi et al, 2008). DTA signals indicated a more stable stage for materials co-precipitated with ammonia.…”