Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Clay Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/clay Research paper Synthesis and characterization of novel nanocomposite by using kaolinite and carbon nanotubes Vijay Bahadur Yadav a , Ranu Gadi a, ⁎ , Sippy Kalra b a Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for women, New Delhi, India b Central Road Research Institute-CSIR, New Delhi, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Clay mineral Nanocomposite Kaolinite Carbon nanotubes (CNT) Adsorptive application ABSTRACT Environmental Pollution has increased tremendously since last few years as a result of urbanization leading to environmental, geological and global changes. There are numerous emerging pollutants which are toxic in nature. Since they may have critical environmental repercussions they have to be deactivated or mitigated by various technical means. Therefore, there is a need to develop new and novel smart material for sustainable environmental pollution control. Various types of clay and carbon materials are well known for their application in environmental protection using their properties of adsorption. However, they have been used separately. Keeping this thought, new material using kaolinite (kaol) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) has been developed with the potential application in water treatment. Kaol has been modified by chemical treatment method to get eNH 2 bondings as is evident from Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy showing reflection at 1618 cm -1 . MWCNT were also modified by chemical route to develop eCOOH bonding and it was confirmed by FT-IR reflection at 1726 cm -1 . Fabrication of nanocomposite by solution mixing method to get eCONH bonding was confirmed by the reflection at 1682 cm -1 on FT-IR spectrum. The structural properties of nanocomposites have been studied by X-ray dif- fraction (XRD). Mean size of crystalline structure was 32.46 nm for untreated kaol and 19.55 nm for nano- composite. Simultaneously loss of intensity and widening of XRD reflection occurred due to change in crystalline to amorphous form. It was an indication of increase in amorphous form and reduction in crystallinity. It was evident from scanning electron microscopy (SEM), that clay- CNT nanocomposite was homogenized and has distinctive morphology. The average diameter of nanocomposite was ~ 20 nm, which was identified by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Physical properties were also investigated using N 2 -adsorption isotherm study; pore size distribution and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area. Adsorption properties of clay and nanocomposite were calculated and their BET surface area was found to be 9.13 m 2 g -1 and 23.43 m 2 g -1 , respectively. Similarly, Langmuir surface area was 13.16 m 2 g -1 and 33.95 m 2 g -1 , mi- cropore area was 6.90 m 2 g -1 and 22.11 m 2 g -1 and total pore volume was 0.04 cm 3 g -1 and 0.10 cm 3 g -1 , respectively. 1. Introduction There is large addition of environmental contamination since last few decades subsequently because of industrialization, population mi- gration from rural to urban areas, rapid growth of urban area, in- creasing traffic, agricultural, domestic activities and other environ- mental, geological and global changes. Everyday a challenge is recognized and attention is required for mitigation. Therefore, there is need to develop new and novel smart material for sustainable en- vironmental pollution control. Various types of clay and carbon mate- rials are well known for their application in environmental protection. Kaolinite (kaol) was used as an adsorbent since long; it has triclinic crystalline two layer type equi-dimensional structure with the compo- sition of SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 ,H 2 O with traces of elements like Mg, K, Fe, Ti, etc. (Murray, 2007; Choudhury, 2017). The presence of surface charge of clay was due to structure of clay, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and swelling properties (Miranda-Trevino and Coles, 2003; Rouquerol et al., 2013). Clays are exceptionally fine particles containing chemical properties of colloids. The adsorption application of clay minerals was due to high specific surface area (SSA), high CEC, net negative charge on the surface of minerals, selectivity, regenerability, abundance, che- mical and mechanical stability, and clay minerals layered structure, etc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.11.043 Received 4 September 2017; Received in revised form 28 November 2017; Accepted 29 November 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ranugadi@igduw.ac.in (R. Gadi). Applied Clay Science 155 (2018) 30–36 0169-1317/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. T