Preparation of organo- montmorillonite modified with quaternary ammonium surfactant and its adsorption behavior for phenol

Cationic surfactant dihexadecyldimethylammonium bromide( DHDMA) and Gemini surfactant1,2- ethylene bis( cetyldimethyl ammonium bromide)( 16- 2- 16) were used separately to prepare two kinds of organo- montmorillonite DHDMA- MMT and 16- 2- 16- MMT. The products were characterized by FT- IR,X- ray diffraction( XRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis( TGA). Phenol adsorption behavior of the two kinds of product was investigated and compared. Experiment results demonstrated that the organic carbon content of the two kinds of product is close to each other at the same surfactant loadings while the adsorption amount of phenol and normalized organic carbon content adsorption coefficient of 16- 2- 16- MMT is remarkably higher than that of DHDMA- MMT. In view of that same carbon chains are containing in the molecule structure of the two kinds of product,and the structure difference of the two surfactants is only that16- 2- 16 owns an extra quaternary ammonium headgroup as comparing with DHDMA,it is reasonable to conclude that the quaternary ammonium headgroup plays an important role in the process of adsorbing phenol from aqueous solution by the organo- montmorillonite.