Adsorption of cationic surfactant as a probe of the montmorillonite surface reactivity in the alginate hydrogel composites

Abstract

Clay included alginate-clay composites is the only responsible for benzalkonium chloride adsorption. Adsorption mechanism occurs by cation exchange at low concentrations. The clay encapsulation promotes tail–tail interaction among surfactants.

Some Unmodified Household Adsorbents for the Adsorption of Benzalkonium Chloride—A Kinetic and Thermodynamic Case Study for Commercially Available Paper

“…Even so, the achieved adsorption capacities at 25 °C are comparable to the ones mentioned previously for another low-cost adsorbent: 11 ÷ 22 mg/g on polyethylene microplastics [ 40 ]. On the other hand, up to one order of magnitude higher values of (100 to 500 mg/g) may be targeted when using activated carbon [ 30 , 37 ] or montmorillonite [ 31 , 33 , 36 , 38 ]. However, these require complex and pricey physical and chemical treatment prior to their employment as adsorbents.…”

“…BAC adsorption was employed for other purposes: to probe the montmorillonite surface reactivity when encapsulated in a composite of alginate hydrogels [ 38 ], to decide whether zeolite–surfactant–drug composites are suitable drug deliverers when BAC is co-adsorbed with sulfamethoxazole on purified natural clinoptilolite [ 39 ], or to choose the best sterilizing grade filter membranes in the pharmaceutical industry, so that they retain the least BAC possible, and its concentration in the filtrate does not drop below its predetermined specification sterile limit [ 40 , 41 ].…”