Al–Fe PILC preparation, characterization and its potential adsorption capacity for aflatoxin B1

• Aluminum–iron–pillared montmorillonite (AlFePMt) is prepared by ion exchange.
• Both Mt and AlFePMt can adsorb AFB1 but the latter has higher adsorption capacity.
• The adsorption of AFB1 lies in the microstructure and chemical composition of Mt.
• Adsorption isotherms of Mt and AlFePMt are consistent with the Langmuir model.
• We report an adsorbent which can remove AFB1 from the contaminated products.

Montmorillonite (Mt) was used as the precursor material for synthesis of aluminum–iron–pillared montmorillonite (AlFePMt) and the adsorption of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) by Mt and AlFePMt was investigated. Different forms of polycations were prepared and used to modify Mt, when the molar ratio of Al3 + to Fe3 + was 8.0, AlFePMt obtained the maximum adsorption capacity of AFB1 (660.0 μg/g) which was much higher than that of Mt (30.4 μg/g). The adsorbents were characterized by XRD, SEM and FTIR, and the effects of adsorbent amount, pH and interaction time on the adsorption of AFB1 onto Mt and AlFePMt were also studied. Adsorption isotherm parameters were obtained from Langmuir and Freundlich and the adsorption data fitted better to Langmuir. The obtained results show that the great difference of adsorption capacity between Mt and AlFePMt mainly lies in their microstructure and chemical composition, and it suggests that AlFePMt is suitable to be used as a potential adsorbent to remove AFB1 from the contaminated products.