Porous Clay Heterostructure with Alginate Encapsulation for Toluene Removal

Hybrid Hosts Based on Sodium Alginate and Porous Clay Heterostructures for Drug Encapsulation

In this study, some hybrid materials based on sodium alginate (NaAlg) and porous clay heterostructures (PCHs) were investigated as new hosts for 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) encapsulation. The hybrid hosts were prepared by ionotropic gelation technique using different concentrations of PCHs (1, 3, and 10 wt%) in order to identify the optimal parameters for encapsulation and drug release. The obtained hybrid materials were characterized using FTIR Spectrometry, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-Vis spectrometry to investigate the interactions of the raw materials involved in the preparation of hybrid hosts, the influence of PCHs concentrations on drug encapsulation efficiency and drug release profile. All the results show that the synthesized hybrid materials were able to load a high amount of 5-FU, the encapsulation efficiency and the release profile being influenced by the concentrations of PCHs.

Al and Zr Porous Clay Heterostructures as Removal Agents of Basic Blue-41 Dye from an Artificially Polluted Solution: Regeneration Properties and Batch Design

The removal of Basic Blue-41 dye molecules was carried out by using two doped porous clay heterostructures by aluminum (Al) or zirconium (Zr) species. The proposed method of synthesis showed its efficiency, starting from Al or Zr intercalated hydrolyzed species, prior to its reaction with dodecylamine (C12 amine) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a silica source. The intercalated precursors and their porous clay heterostructures (PCH) derivatives were characterized by different techniques. Solid NMR technique proved the presence of Al species into the intercalated silica between the clay sheets, and in addition to Si in different environments within the PCH materials. The Zr-PCH material exhibited a higher surface area and pore volume compared to its Al-PCH counterpart, with a mesoporous character for both materials. A maximum removed amount of 279 and 332 mg/g was achieved and deduced from the Langmuir equation. The regeneration tests revealed that the removal efficiency of Zr-PCH was retained after five regeneration runs, with a loss of 15% of the original value; meanwhile, the Al-PCH lost 45% of its efficiency after only three cycles. A single-stage batch design was proposed based on the Langmuir isotherm parameters. The increase of the removal capacity of Zr-PCH led to the reduction of the required amounts for the target removal of BB-41 dye compared to Al-PCH.