Preparation and Characterization of Montmorillonite Intercalation Compounds with Quaternary Ammonium Surfactant: Adsorption Effect of Zearalenone

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Yujin Li 1 and Lu Zeng 2 and Yan Zhou 1 and Tiefu Wang 1 and Yanji Zhang 1

Academic Editor:Sun-Hwa Yeon

1, College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130000, China
2, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China

Received 24 September 2013; Accepted 14 December 2013; 9 February 2014

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Many types of clay minerals such as montmorillonite (Mt), sepiolite, and kaolinite have shown high adsorption capacity. Mt, a clay mineral with 2 : 1 layered structure, can hold some cations between its layers. Substitution of Si⁴⁺ with Al³⁺ in tetrahedral sheets and Al³⁺ with Mg²⁺ in octahedral sheets make the lattice a net negative charge which is usually balanced by cations of Li⁺ , Na⁺ , and Ca²⁺ located between the layers. These cations can be easily replaced by other organic or inorganic cations under certain conditions, which endow Mt with some special properties [1]. Mt has been widely used in industry and agriculture, particularly in adsorption of mycotoxins. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 25% of the world's cereal grain production is contaminated by mycotoxins [2]. Zearalenone (ZEA), along with others most of mycotoxins, commonly found in animal feeds, can cause serious health problems in livestock [3, 4]. Zearalenone is most notorious for its effects on precocious development of mammae and other estrogenic effects in young gilts [5]. The chemical structure of ZEA is presented in Figure 1 [6]. It has been reported that natural Mt are effective in adsorbing aflatoxins in vitro and in vivo [7, 8]. However, their hydrophilic negatively charged surfaces are less effective in binding other mycotoxins, which are more hydrophobic, such as ZEA. According to some literatures, organic modification of clays with organic cations, surfactants, can result in high affinity for in vitro adsorption of hydrophobic ZEA [4-9].

Figure 1: The molecular structural formula of ZEA.

[figure omitted; refer to PDF]

The quaternary ammonium surfactant (QAS) is the most commonly used organic modifier, which can enhance...