Clay: chemical and biological properties

As clays are materials that possess a very interesting property-namely, swelling-this greatly facilitates their modification into inorganic or organophilic materials in aqueous media. We were interested in intercalating organic compounds into a clay (montmorillonite) and testing their antibacterial effects. In our study, we drew upon two branches of science: biology and chemistry, with its two sub-disciplines, organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry. We investigated the incorporation of 2-pyridyl-thiosmecarbazide into montmorillonite, with and without a surfactant. These hybrid materials possess antibacterial activity. A biological study was therefore conducted to demonstrate their inhibitory effects against microorganisms (S. aureus, E. coli, E. faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). The clay we synthesised shows good results in terms of inhibitory activity; it possesses antimicrobial properties, particularly antibacterial ones. My work is aimed specifically at chemists and biologists, as well as all science enthusiasts.