Substantial improvement in the adsorption behavior of montmorillonite toward Tartrazine through hexadecylamine impregnation.

In the present work, the surface of montmorillonite K10 was successfully modified by hexadecylamine surfactant (Mt-HDA) and its intercalation and characteristics were assessed by XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX and BET methods. Also, its adsorption performance was systematically examined in the removal of Tartrazine (TZ), as a sulfonated azo dye model, from aqueous phase. Our results showed that the HDA modification remarkably improved the adsorption ability of montmorillonite toward TZ molecules.

Heterogeneous UV-Switchable Au nanoparticles decorated tungstophosphoric acid/TiO for efficient photocatalytic degradation process.

In the present study, gold nanoparticles were locally well-decorated on the surface of TiO using the tungstophosphoric acid (HPW), as UV-switchable reducing intermediate linkers. The prepared Au NPs/HPW/TiO nanostructure was characterized using FTIR, XRD, EDS, SEM and TEM, which confirmed the successful attachment of quasi-spherical Au NPs in the range of 20-30 nm on the surface of HPW modified TiO. Also, the FTIR results show that the Au NPs were binded to TiO through the terminal the oxygen atoms HPW.