Preparation and water retention properties of montmorillonite modified by EL-10 emulsifying agent

Abstract

Aiming at the problem of available water conservation in desertification ecological restoration, we prepared the water retention materials with montmorillonite(MMT) modified by Castor Oil Polyoxyethylene Ether(10) (EL-10) emulsifying vegetable waxes. The water retention property was studied in simulated desertification climate, and the materials were analyzed and characterized by UV-Vis, SEM, FTIR and XRD measurements. Moreover, a UV carbon arc lamp was used to test the resistance to aging. The experimental results show that the emulsion has good dispersity. Both the water retention property and the aging resistance performance of the modified clay were excellent. The lamellar structure and chemical composition of MMT had no obvious changes before and after modification. The surfaces of clay particles were coated uniformly with modified MMT, so the loose clay particles were cemented together by vegetable waxes. Meanwhile, the original big hydrophilic pores between the clay particles turned into capillary hydrophobic pores. So the clay particles formed a bonding layer which could inhibit water evaporation. Grass-planting experiment showed that reasonable mass ratio of vegetable waxes and EL-10 was 1:18. The materials not only had great water retention property but also maintained sound air permeability so that the germination rate of grass seed significantly increased from 8% to 52%.

Keywords

castor oil polyoxyethylene ether(10) (EL-10) / vegetable waxes / montmorillonite / modification / water retention properties

References

[1] D'Odorico P., Bhattachan A., Davis K. F., et al. Global Desertification: Drivers and Feedbacks[J]. Advances in Water Resources, 2013, 51(1): 326-344.

[2] Chen Y, Tang H. Desertification in North China: Background, Anthropogenic Impacts and Failures in Combating It[J]. Land Degradation and Development, 2005, 16(4): 367-376.

[3] Zhang Z., Gu N., Zhang Ji.fei. Preparation and Characteristic of Self-regulation Water-transmitting Coating Fiber[J]. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed., 2009, 24(4): 520-524.

[4] Wang H., Gao Y., Jiang H., et al. Review on Techniques and Models for Sand Prevention and Control[J]. Journal of Inner Mongolia Forestry Science & Technology, 2012, 38(1): 46-52.

[5] Wang J., Pang H., Ren T., et al. Effect of Plastic Film Mulching and Straw Buried on Soil Water-salt Dynamic in Hetao Plain[J]. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering (Transactions of the CSAE), 2012, 28(15): 52-59.

[6] Liu J., Shi B., Lu Y., et al. Effectiveness of a New Organic Polymer Sand-fixing Agent on Sand Fixation[J]. Environmental Earth Sciences, 2012, 65(3): 589-595.

[7] Yang M., Wang F., Yao Y., et al. Preparation and Sanding-fixing Properties of a New-type Environment Friendly Sandfixing Agent[J]. Chinese Journal of Materials Research, 2012, 26(3): 225-230.

[8] Yang K., Tang Ze.jun. Effectiveness of Fly ash and Polyacrylamide as a Sand-fixing Agent for Wind Erosion Control[J]. Water, Air&Soil Pollution, 2012, 223(7): 4065-4074.

[9] Zhang Z., Wang H., Li Cu.ilan. Inhibiting Water Evaporation of Sandy Soil by the Soil Particles Modified with Japanese Wax[J]. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed., 2009, 20(1): 59-62.

[10] Liu J., Shi B., Gu K., et al. Laboratory Study on Soil Modified by Polyurethane Sand-fixing Agents[J]. Journal of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Engineering, 2013, 33(1): 29-34.

[11] Jiang L., Yang W., Lu Q., et al. The Effect of Low-covered Sand-fixing Forest Belts on Restoration of the Soil and Vegetation[J]. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 2013, 33(10): 3192-3204.

[12] Liu R., Chai Y., Xu K., et al. Variations of Ground Vegetation and Soil Properties during the Growth Process of Artificialsand-fixing Caragana Intermedia Plantations in Desert Steppe[J]. The Journal of Applied Ecology, 2012, 23(11): 2955-2960.

[13] Zhang Z., Xu H., Ma D., et al. Micro-dynamic Behavior and Self-adjusting Water Transmit Mechanism of Watertransferring Composite[J]. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed., 2011, 26(6): 1193-1199.

[14] Yang J., Wang F., Tan Ti.anwei. Controlling Degradation and Physical Properties of Chemical Sand Fixing Agent-poly(aspartic acid) by Crosslinking Density and Composite[J]. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2009, 111(3): 1557-1563.

[15] Zhang Z., Wang Bo.tao. Preparation and Water Retention Properties of Clay-based Sand-fixing and Grass-planting Materials[J]. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed., 2013, 28(2): 325-328.

[16] Zhang J., Yang J., Zhang F., et al. Characteristics Evaluation of the Multifunctional Sand-fixing and Water-maintaining Polymer[J]. Journal of Agro-Environment Science, 2008, 27(5): 1820-1825.