Thermal stability and hot-stage Raman spectroscopic study of Ca-montmorillonite modified with different surfactants: A comparative study

• A typical Ca-montmorillonite was modified with three surfactants through ion exchange.
• The organoclays were characterized by XRD, TG and hot stage Raman.
• The structural geometry and thermal properties of organoclays were analyzed.
• The prepared organoclays show potential prospects in the environmental remediation.

Three long chain cationic surfactants were intercalated into Ca-montmorillonite through ion exchange and the obtained organoclays were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and Raman spectroscopy. The intercalation of surfactants not only changes the surface properties of clay from hydrophilic to hydrophobic but also greatly increases the basal spacing of the interlayers based on XRD analysis. The thermal stability of organoclays intercalated with three surfactants (TTAB, DTAB and CTAB) and the different arrangements of the surfactant molecules intercalated into Ca-montmorillonite were determined by TG-DTG analysis. A Raman spectroscopic study on the Ca-montmorillonite modified by three surfactants prepared at different concentrations provided the detailed conformational ordering of different intercalated long-chain surfactants under different conditions. The wavenumber of the antisymmetric stretching mode is more sensitive than that of the symmetric stretching mode to the mobility of the tail of the amine chain. At room temperature, the conformational ordering is more easily affected by the packing density in the lateral model. With the increase of the temperature, the positions of both the antisymmetric and symmetric stretching bands shift to higher wavenumbers, which indicates a decrease of conformational ordering. This study offers new insights into the structure and properties of Ca-montmorillonite modified with different long chain surfactants. Moreover, the experimental results confirm the potential applications of organic Ca-montmorillonites for the removal of organic impurities from aqueous media.