The modification of montmorillonite clay with benzethonium chloride and determination of its application areas

In this work, Montmorillonite clay (Mt) obtained from Tokat, Reşadiye region having 0.91 mmol/g cation exchange capacity were modified by using Benzethonium Chloride which is a quaternary alkylammonium cation. Because BEC is highly effective against the bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it was used in the modification to obtain a new material with different application areas. The effects of heating method and amount of BEC used on the properties of modified clay were studied. For this aim, conventional and microwave heating methods and the different amounts of BEC that were equivalent to various percentages of CEC. In the first step of experiments, the montmorillonite was purified and then kinetic and adsorption experiments were performed. Organoclays were prepared by using conventional and microwave heating methods and the BEC in amounts equivalent to 50%, 100%, 200% of CEC. Then organoclay samples characterized by XRD, ATR-FTIR, SEM, Thermal analyses and Zeta Potential Measurements. Antibacterial experiments were carried out two main parts agar diffusion method as qualitative and ASTM 2149 as quantitative. Kinetic experiments revealed that adsorption kinetic of BEC was very fast when it was used less than a certain amount. If the amount of BEC was higher this amount, the adsorption kinetics fitted to pseudo second order kinetic model. Adsorption isotherm of BEC on montmorillonite was fitted to Sips isotherm model. According to all XRD results, the basal spacing of the clay increased up to 2.85 nm with increasing BEC amount that formed pseudo trimolecular layer in the interlayer. When Zeta potential Measurements and XRD analyses were considered together, it was found that BEC was distributed between external and internal surfaces. The shift in the temperatures assigned to removing of physically bonded water to smaller degrees indicated that the hydrophilicity of clay surface decreased with increasing amount of BEC. Antibacterial experiments demonstrated that the organoclays obtained had antibacterial property and they caused a 99 % of reduction against S. aureus and E. coli. Keywords: Montmorillonite, Modification, Benzethonium Chloride, Adsorption, Antibacterial effect.