antibacterial and dye removal potential of modified kaolinite for the treatment of drinking water

Objective: poor treatment of drinking water before distribution leads to the consumption of contaminants causing water borne type of ailments due to the presence of the pathogens and cancer related illnesses as result of the presence of dyes. this research focused on the development of new organoclay based composite that serves as both antibacterial and dye removing agent for the treatment of microbial and dyes contaminated water from the source. material and methods: the cation exchange capacity (cec) of the kaolinite was improved through acid treatment. chlorhexidine- loaded zinc- kaolinite was prepared via adsorption of chlorhexidine acetate (0.5 mmol/l) on zinc-kaolinite. the composites were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem) and energy dispersive x-ray (edx). the antibacterial assays of the composites were conducted against staphylococcus aureus (s. aureus) and salmonella typhi (s. typhi) using disc diffusion technique (ddt), minimum inhibitory concentration (mic), and minimum bactericidal concentration (mbc). results: the cec value of the acid treated kaolinite (kaot2) was improved from 9.26 + 0.82 to 13.43+1.61 meq/100g, the morphology of the composite remains intact and indicate the presence of zinc (zn) after formulation. the target composite (chx-zn-kaot2) shows its effectiveness against s. aureus and s. typhi showing the inhibition zones of 26 mm and 1.5 mm respectively. similarly, mic, with 120 mg/ml inhibit both organisms while mbc revealed that the target composite, 60 mg/ml kills s. aureus and 120 mg/ml kills s. typhi respectively. the dye removal efficiency of the target composite is concentration dependent at the highest concentration can remove up to 83.79% and 91.75% of both cr and mb dyes respectively. conclusion: the formulated target composite is a good candidate for the treatment of drinking water contaminated with such microorganisms and can be able to remove substantial content of dyes.