Synthesis of montmorillonite-based tris(2-ethylamine)‎-schiff-base composites with remarkable antibacterial activity

Abstract EN

A range of heterogeneous, inexpensive and benign Schiff bases-montmorillonite composites were synthesized and screened for their antibacterial activity against common microbial pathogens.

Sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) clay was modified with tris(2-ethylamine) in the presence of dilute HCl to yield a quaternary salt of tris(2-ethylamine) modified clay.

The Schiff bases were then fabricated from the reaction of the modified montmorillonite using different aldehydes.

The structures of the obtained compounds were confirmed by Fourier transformer Infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA).

All the obtained composite materials were screened for their antibacterial activities against the multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains.

It was reasoned that the modified MMT-based composites has the ability to absorb the different micro-organisms onto the surface, and accordingly act as an effective antibacterial agent.

All the composites showed significant antibacterial activity between 2.5 and 20 mg/mL against the MDR bacterial strains.

The benzyl-based/modified MMT and the tertiary amino-based/modified MMT was found to be the most effective antibacterial agent.