Abstract
The effect of electrolytes (NaCl and CaCl~2~) and polymers (CPAM and HPAM) on the thixotropy of Mg‐Al‐layered double hydroxide (LDHs)/kaolinite dispersions has been investigated. It was observed that the type of thixotropy in LDH/kaolinite dispersions may be affected by NaCl, but not by CaCl~2~ in range of concentration of interest. The type of thixotropy in LDH/kaolinite dispersion with R=0 transformed from positive thixotropy to complex thixotropy and at last positive thixotropy again with the concentration of NaCl in range of 0.00–0.10 mol·L^−1^; the type of thixotropy in LDHs/kaolinite dispersions with R=0.25 transformed from complex thixotropy to positive thixotropy and then complex thixotropy again with the concentration of NaCl in range of 0.00–0.10 mol·L^−1^. The type of thixotropy in LDH/kaolinite dispersion with R=0 may be not affected by cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) and hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM); but the LDHs/kaolinite dispersions with R=0.25 transformed from complex thixotropy to positive thixotropy with the both polymers concentration in range of interest, which indicated that the microstructure of the dispersion changed from weak folc sediments structure to steric network structure.