Organoclay production by using quaternary ammonium salt and characterization

Clays are structrally complex, mineral containing materials and they are considered as a material group that are commonly used in various industrial sectors such as ceramics, cast, food, petroleum, drilling, filling, paper, plastics, and medicine.In recent years,, organoclays which are formed by modification of clays are also used in various industrial areas. Organo-clays are prepared via modification of clays with cationic surface active materials or long hydrocarbon chain quarterner amonium salts. Quarterner amonium salts are of particular interest since these surface allows easy separation of clay laminates of active materials' tails. Cationic surface active agents containing quarterner amonium salts are important biocidal products with well known their antisceptic and disinfectant properties. Quarterner amonium salts have functional groups with high antimicrobial activity and their field of application is wide. Nanocomposite materials are plastics which includes a very small amount (%<10) of nano size mineral filling particles. Generally, process of clay-nanocomposite production relies on mixing polimer and quarterner amonium salts with modified clays. Therefore, organoclays are used as an effective filling materials to obtain nanocomposite materials. At the same time, utilization of them in organic fields such as organoclay removal from water is a strategic step. Beside their importance in soil, organoclays are also used as gelling agent in industry. In this study, industrially highly feasible and high quality organoclays were produced. Organoclays were synthetised by determining the interactions between clay particles and tetrabuthylammonium succinimide surface active agents and the interactions between clay particles in clay dispersion. Firstly, Na+-montmorillonit (Na+-Mt) was modified with tetrabuthylammonium succinimide surface active agents. Synthetised organoclays characterized by using FTIR, SEM and XRD assays, then structural definition of synthetised samples were performed. Finally, microbial activities of these organo-clays were investigated. It was determined that surface active compound was bound to crude clay using the peaks seen in the 2969 - 2970 cm-1 wavelengths in FTIR spectrums and the clay was modified organically. Crystallinity degree of samples and distances between layers were measured by XRD, the modification yields were compared and % 39.20 yield was obtained. Uneven and layered structures that prevent crack formations were determined using the views of surface unevenness by SEM. In accordance with these findings, it was concluded that OMMT-6 has a few better characteristics than OMMT-2 for usage according to sample crystallinity degree, the magnutide of distances between layers and surface unevenness. It was determined by microbial analyses that tetrabutylammonium succinimide supresses the antibacterial property of Na+- montmorillonite. As a conclusion, by investigating adhesion/adsorbtion ratio of tetrabuthylammonium succinimide molecules to clay surface and distances between laminars , organoclays with appropriate properties for obtaining polymer-clay nanocomposites were produced and the results were compared with other studies.