Adsorption of <i>Salmonella</i> in Clay Minerals and Clay-Based Materials

Abstract

A series of clay minerals and clay-based materials have been tested to eliminate one of the most dangerous bacteria we can find in the water: Salmonella. It has been proven that the use of clays and their PCH materials can be a suitable method for removing Salmonella from water. The results of this initial study show that all the materials analyzed have great salmonella adsorption capacities ranging from the lowest value observed in the mont-PCH sample (0.29 × 1010 CFU g−1) to the highest value observed in the natural palygorskite sample (1.52 × 1010 CFU g−1). Macroporosity, accessible external surface area, and the presence of silanol groups in the external surface of the particles appears to be the controlling factors for Salmonella adsorption capacity while it seems that the structural characteristics of the clay minerals and their respective PCH does not affect the adsorption capacity.

Keywords

• smectite
• montmorillonite
• saponite
• sepiolite
• palygorskite
• porous clay heterostructures