PubMed · 2026-06-23
Researchers engineered a modified clay material that powerfully traps PFAS 'forever chemicals' in soil barriers, using a coating that both electrically attracts and physically grips these pollutants — a potential breakthrough for containing contamination at industrial and military sites.
Covalently grafting dimethyloctadecyl ammonium onto kaolinite clay produced a material (DMOAP-Kao) with significantly higher PFAS adsorption capacity than unmodified clay, with superior stability over cation-exchange methods
Molecular dynamics simulations identified three distinct adsorption zones on the modified clay surface, with free energy calculations revealing a three-stage capture process driven by both electrostatic attraction and hydrophobic binding
Permeation tests confirmed that adding DMOAP-Kao to standard soil-bentonite barrier materials measurably improved PFAS retardation, validating real-world application in containment walls