Table 2
Within this temperature range, an initial mass loss was registered for NaMt-Cu0 up to 180 °C, and must still be due to the dehydration process. This dehydration over a larger temperature range can be explained by an additional contribution of retained moisture on the incorporated metal. A second WL can be seen up to 470-480 °C and could be related to a dehydroxylation of terminal Metal-OH groups of possible metal oxide particles. The latter may unavoidably be produced during the synthesis procedure through slight metal oxidation when contacted to air. Another explanation should consist in a possible slow release of moisture from the internal surface the metal loaded clay mineral. Both WL were found to shift towards lower temperatures but with higher WL values in Ag0/NaMt, indicating a higher hydrophilic character. In contrast, CT-based samples were mostly characterized by a much lower moisture loss (Fig. S11.b) , which indicates a much weaker hydrophilic character. This must be due to the fact that commercial untreated CT displays negligible surface density of hydroxyl groups. Polyol incorporation appeared to slightly improve this feature, by introducing high amount of OH groups. Incorporation of MNPs alone or accompanied by polyol H20 induced a marked enhancement of the hydrophilic character. This is supported by more pronounced weight loss in the temperature range of 47-200 oC up to 8.25 % (Cu0/CT), 9.74 % (Ag0/CT), 4.675 % (Cu0/H20@CT) and 8.525 % (Ag0/H20@CT) (Table 2 ).