Natural aluminosilicates modified with silver: structural and morphology analysis

S. M. MAGAÑA; L. LEÓN; P. QUINTANA; Y. FREILE-PELEGRIN; R.M. TORRES SÁNCHEZ; T. LÓPEZ; J. TOLEDO; C. ANGELES-CHAVEZ; M. CORTES

Guanajuato

Congreso; 3er. Internacional Sol-Gel Sci. Aplications Congreso and VI Congreso Nacional de Materiales Sol-Ge; 2006

Universidad de Guanajuato

Cation exchange is one of the outstanding properties of aluminosilicates, like montmorillonite and clinoptilolites. Utilization of natural aluminosilicates in water treatment has increase interest due to their availability and low cost. Silver cation exchange has been used in japan as a sterilizing and antibacterial agent in paper, plastic, paint, ceramic. Recently a Mexican clinoptilolite mineral was reported to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms. The aim of this study is to analyze two different clay minerals from Argentina exchanged with Ag. Silver is a metal easy to stabilize in clays minerals and is very effective in the destruction of bacteria as Escherichia coli. X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy techniques were used for the structural characterization and scanning and transmission electron microscopy for the morphological analysis. The elemental analysis was carried out with a X-ray energy dispersive. Antibacterial test was made to study the bacterial inhibition of E. coli by the agar diffusion method and the results show that tectsilicates are more effective than montmorillonites.