Narrow Results

A new type of organophilic clay gallant was discovered in which the organic cations derived from organic salt compounds provide improved gelling properties in organic solvents. It was discovered that that the tail length of the surfactants can affect the suspension property of organically modified sepiolite significantly. Furthermore, it has been discovered that surfactant CTAB has stronger suspension properties than the other three surfactants, accompanying with an 80% suspension value. The present research provides an improved, more efficient organophilic clay gellant for gelling or thickening non-aqueous solvent-based compositions. Besides, the results of SEM demonstrate that the introduction of CTAB is favorable to the dispersion of sepiolite fibers, leading to a better suspension value of sepiolite suspensions. Besides, FTIR spectra analysis indicate that the formation of hydrogen-bonding during the adsorption of surfactant molecules onto the sepiolite particles.

Sepiolite is clay mineral, which after modified can be an effective dispersant and stabilizer in supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) system which reduced aggregation and enhanced reaction activity. The mechanism for the removal of Cd(II) by sepiolite supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (S-NZVI) was investigated by XRD, TEM, BET, Zeta potential and XPS. The effects of several factors, including the solution pH and co-existting ions were researched. The solution pH and co-existting ions were found to be significant to the removal efficiency. As an increase of pH, the removal rates of Cd(II) increased. With the increase of Ca²⁺ concentration, the removal of Cd(II) was higher than bare, and the removal efficiency was all above 97% after 1 h reaction. On the other hand, the anions had different effect on removal efficiency of Cd(II).