Hierarchically branched MoO 3 nanostructures on Ti substrates were successfully prepared via a simple and controllable electrodeposition-heat-treatment method. XPS and Raman results indicate that these branched MoO 3 nanostructures possess some oxygen vacancies. The magnetic measurements show the prepared branched MoO 3 nanostructures exhibit ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature. The observed room-temperature ferromagnetism can be mainly ascribed to the oxygen vacancies on the surface of the samples.

This study mainly focused on exploring the influence of different processing methods on the structure, physical and chemical characteristics and adsorption ability of modified montmorillonites. The effect of three different modifiers with different chain lengths such as 12-aminododecanoic acid (ADA), 1,12diaminododecane (DDC) and octadecylamine (ODC) on the d-spacing of montmorillonite was studied in detail. FT-IR spectra and N 2 adsorption isotherms were used to confirm the formation of modified montmorillonites. XRD experiments were carried out and the influence of structural and processing parameters of the modifiers on the interlamellar spacing of modified montmorillonites was studied. It was found that the ODC modifier with a longer carbon chain comparatively enhanced the interlamellar spacing than that of other modifiers. The influence of HCl, the amount of modifiers and temperature on the interlayer structure was also discussed. Upon modification, the peak around 2q ¼ 6.8 due to [001] plan was shifted to lower 2q values and the corresponding interlamellar spacing was increased from 1.39 nm to 2.97 nm. The adsorption behavior of the modified montmorillonites for both inorganic and organic pollutants was also discussed based on structural and surface properties. The observed log K OM values for the distribution of organic pollutants onto modified montmorillonites are comparatively larger in this study indicating that these modified montmorillonites are superior to both natural soil systems as well as literature studies reported so far.

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