Engineering Commons^™

Cationic Surfactant Modification And Its Impact On The Engineering Behaviors Of Montmorillonite., Mohammad Ghavami

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the microstructure of organoclays after organic surfactant modifications and the potential use in geoenvironmental engineering applications including waste containment in earthen barrier, rheological control agents for drilling fluid and soil stabilization. Organoclays, or clays modified by organic matters, are often synthesized by exchanging the naturally occurring interlayer inorganic cations (e.g., Na+, Ca²⁺) of the clay with organic cationic surfactants. In this research, montmorillonites intercalated with two quaternary ammonium surfactants, hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA+) and bis (hydrogenated tallow alkyl) dimethyl ammonium were used as the representative organo-rich, partitioning clays. The laboratory characterization techniques including XRD, TEM and …