PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ORGANOMONTMORILLONITE MODIFIED WITH ALKYLAMMONIUM CATION SURFACTANT: ADSORPTION EFFECT OF ZENONE

Montmorillonite (MMT) has been subjected to modification through ion-exchange reaction by hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) ([(C16H33)N(CH3)3]Cl). The organomodified montmorillonite (OMM) was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, ATG, SEM, EDX, and Nitrogen adsorption measurements (BET). The basal spacing of unmodified bentonite, determined by XRD was 13.54 Å and after modification it increased up to 19.74 Å. FTIR and TG/DTG results showed a good amount of organic compound in organomodified MMT. Results of the SEM study revealed a tendency towards lump formation and agglomeration of the organomodified clay particles of montmorillonite. The adsorption of Zenone (ZE), a mycotoxin from animal food, onto MMT and OMMT was investigated. Effects of alkylammonium Cation Surfactant in binding ZE were studied. The intercalation of MMT with CTAC, the OMMT exhibited the highest adsorption rate of ZE (94.1%) which was much higher than that of MMT (11.21%). The adsorption isotherm parameters were calculated by using the Langmuir and Freundlich models and the data fitted better to the first one. All results indicate that OMMT has great potential to be a high-performance material to control ZE contamination. Hamoudi Mekhalfi, e-mail: bsouf77@yahoo.fr 32 Hamoudi Mekhalfi and Soufiane Boudjemaa