The utilization of smectite clay, swelling layered silicate, as scaffolds for designing functional nanostructures was overviewed. Surface modification of smectites with organoammonium ions has given hydrophobic and microporous nature to uptake nonionic organic contaminants from environments. The states of the adsorbed nonionic organic compounds have been altered and varied by the modification of smectites as shown by the controlled release and specific catalytic reactions. Cationic species have been easily concentrated on smectites from aqueous phase and the states (orientation and distribution) have been controlled by the co-adsorption of both cationic and nonionic species. The functions of smectite-organic intercalation compounds derived from the precisely controlled nanostructures were introduced in this review.

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The adsorption of 2-phenylphenol, which is an antifungal agent, onto organically modified clay from aqueous sucrose solution was investigated. 2-Phenylphenol was effectively adsorbed on neostigminemodified smectites and octadecyltrimethylammonium modified smectites even in the presence of sucrose in the starting aqueous solution. Two smectites (a natural montmorillonite, Kunipia F, and a synthetic saponite, Sumecton SA) were used to find clay minerals with lower layer charge density gave larger adsorption capacity for 2-phenylphenol. The result showed the potential application of the organically modified clays to remove 2-phenylphenol from orange extracts.

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