Clays such as smectite have high technical and economic viability due to their large adsorption capacity. These properties can be improved by treatment with acids or other modifications. This paper describes experiments to prepare and characterize organoclays and to evaluate their ability to remove oil from contaminated water in comparison with clay in its natural state. We used natural smectite clay from the municipality of Presidente Dutra, Maranhão State, modified with the quaternary ammonium salt cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. Characterization was performed by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence, thermogravimetry and determination of surface area by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The results showed appropriate conditions of the organophilization process, indicating the intercalation of quaternary ammonium cations between the clay layers. The adsorption tests showed that the natural clay reduced the amount of oil contained in the aqueous medium by 76.16%, while the corresponding removal rates of all organoclays tested were above 92%, which makes them potentially applicable to remove oil from wastewaters.

A preparação de complexos bentonita-ionenos a partir da adsorção de tetrametil-[x,y]-ionenos, onde x= 2 e y= 4,6,10 ou 12, e o 2-hidróxi-3-cloro-ioneno, EPI-DMA, foi realizada com a finalidade de observar o comportamento do tamanho do espaçador do ioneno na expansão basal (d001) das camadas de uma bentonita comercial do Brasil. Os complexos foram caracterizados por espectrometria de absorção na região do infravermelho, termogravimetria, fluorescência e difração de raios X. A partir das análises por fluorescência e difração de raios X dos complexos, foi observado que os poli-quaternários de amônio são adsorvidos nas superfícies internas e externas da argila delaminada, acima da capacidade de troca catiônica, CTC = 91 meq/100g de argila (calculada a partir de dados de fluorescência de raios X). A expansão basal das camadas da argila com os diferentes policátions revelou que o tamanho do espaçador é o fator mais importante, independentemente das massas molares dos ionenos, tal como foi observado principalmente entre os complexos Bt-2,10- e Bt-2,12-ioneno, com massas molares de 12000 e 5000 g/mol, respectivamente.

The preparation of bentonite-ionene complexes based on the adsorption of 2y-ionenes, where y = 4, 6, 10 or 12 and an ionene of the epichloridrin-dimethylamine EPI-DMA kind, was carried out in order to observe the behavior of the ionene spacer size in the expansion of the basal space (d-spacing, d001) of a Brazilian commercial bentonite. The complexes were characterized by adsorption spectromety in the infrared region, thermogravimetry, fluorescence and X-Ray diffraction. Ionenes were synthesized and characterized by infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance, the latter technique being useful for determining the average number molecular weight values. Based on the clay-ionenes complexes it could be observed that the ammonium polyquaternaries are adsorbed on the inner and outer clay surfaces, above the ion exchange capacity, CEC = 91 meq/100 g clay (calculated based on X-Ray fluorescence data). The clay basal expansion with the several polycations revealed that the spacer size is the most important factor, independent of ionene molecular weight values. Among the bentonite-ionene complexes, mainly between Bt-2,10 and Bt-2,12-ionene complexes which differ in molar mass by more than 30,000 g/mol, it was observed that the spacer size has no dependence on the ionene molecular weights.