Beijing Key Laboratory of Materials Utilization of Nonmetallic Minerals and Solid Wastes, National Laboratory of Mineral Materials, School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, 29 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, 100083, China; Department of Earth Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan; Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin - Parkside, 900 Wood Road, Kenosha, WI 53144, USA.
Department of Earth Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
J Hazard Mater. 2020 Feb 15;384:121254. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121254. Epub 2019 Sep 20.
Ethidium bromide (EtBr) is an intercalating agent commonly used as nucleic acid fluorescent tag in various techniques of life science field. It is considered as a serious biohazard due to its mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. As such, developing high efficiency and low cost materials as cleanup kits is in urgent need although many methods have already been developed. In this study we take use of the affinity of organic cations for clay minerals of high cation exchange capacity (CEC) and large specific surface area (SSA) and tested the removal of EtBr using rectorite, a type of clay mineral made of 1:1 regularly mixed layers of illite and montmorillonite. Our results showed that the uptake of Et on rectorite could be as high as 400 mmol/kg and the removal of Et was extremely fast. Desorption of inorganic cation Ca and sorption of counterion Br revealed that cation exchange was the dominating mechanism of Et removal using rectorite. Thermal analyses revealed that the EtBr could be thermally destructed inside the interlayer of rectorite and the material could be thermally regenerated. Thus, clay minerals could have a great potential to be fabricated into cleanup kits for the removal of EtBr in case of spill.
溴化乙锭（EtBr）是一种常用的核酸荧光标记物，广泛应用于生命科学领域的各种技术中。由于其具有诱变和致癌性，被认为是一种严重的生物危害。因此，尽管已经开发了许多方法，但开发高效、低成本的材料作为清除试剂盒仍然是当务之急。在这项研究中，我们利用有机阳离子对高阳离子交换容量（CEC）和大比表面积（SSA）的粘土矿物的亲和力，并用一种由伊利石和蒙脱石 1:1 规则混合层组成的粘土矿物累托石来测试 EtBr 的去除效果。结果表明，累托石对 EtBr 的吸附量高达 400mmol/kg，且去除速度极快。无机阳离子 Ca 的解吸和抗衡离子 Br 的吸附表明，阳离子交换是累托石去除 Et 的主要机制。热分析表明，EtBr 可以在累托石的层间被热破坏，并且该材料可以被热再生。因此，粘土矿物在发生泄漏时，很有可能被制成清除 EtBr 的试剂盒。
