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In this work, a novel organo-clays, zwitterionic surfactant modified montmorillonites (ZSMMs) were synthesized by using sulphobetaine and montmorillonites. The structures of ZSMMs were characterized by X ray diffraction (XRD) methods; the surfactant loading levels were measured by Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis, and their sorptive characteristics toward p-nitrophenol and nitrobenzene were investigated. XRD and TOC measurements indicated that the amount of adsorbed surfactants and the basal spacing of the ZSMMs increase with alkyl chain length and surfactant concentration. Sorption experiments showed that the capacity of p-nitrophenol to sorb onto the ZSMMs is higher than that of nitrobenzene. Both capacities increase with surfactant loading level; However, sorption capacity decreases when the surfactant concentration is higher than 2.0 CEC. Under the same surfactant loading level, the sorption capacities of p-nitrophenol and nitrobenzene increase with alkyl chain length. Under this experimental condition, the longer alkyl chain leads to a higher sorption capacity for hydrophobic organic compounds. On the basis of the ability of p-nitrophenol and nitrobenzene to sorb onto the montmorillonites, we conclude that the contaminant sorption coefficients, normalized with organic carbon content, highly depend on surfactant loading levels. Editorial handling: F. Dong
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