Profiling of Tayammum Clay Product in Malaysia by Spectroscopic-Chemometric Approach

Tayammum is a dry purifying method that uses earthen materials, mostly clay. The technique is applied when there is no access to water or in specific circumstances, such as when a person has susceptible skin on water. In tayammum, Islamic law describes clay as pure dust or soil used as a cleansing agent. Nevertheless, no scientific report examined the components of clay present in tayammum clay. Therefore, this study aimed to characterise and profile the mineral composition of tayammum clay, which is a commercially available product in Malaysia. Twelve commercial clay samples and one representative sample were analysed by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy in the range of 4000 to 600 cm-1. PCA exploratory analysis clearly demonstrated the differentiation of the tayammum clay product into seven groups according to its functional group. Following the FTIR analysis, the samples underwent examination using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometers further to identify the mineral and element composition of the clay, respectively. The XRD analysis indicated that there were possibly four types of mineral powder commonly distributed in the market for Tayammum purposes which are three types of clay: palygorskite, kaolinite, and phengite, and another one is zeolite-type: Na-heulandite. All four of them are common materials used for adsorbent and cleansing purposes.