Adsorption behaviors of zearalenone in corn oil by montmorillonite modified with quaternary ammonium salts

The aim of this study was to explore the detoxification effect and mechanism of montmorillonite (MMT) modified with quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) on zearalenone (ZEN) in corn oil. Therefore, the characteristics and adsorption behavior of MMT before and after QAS modification were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and molecular dynamics simulations. The results showed that hexadecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride modified MMT (H-MMT) was an excellent adsorbent for removing ZEN from corn oil and the maximum adsorption amount of H-MMT (0.469 mg/g) for ZEN was 21.9 times that of MMT. This might be attributed to the numerous amounts of intercalation between MMT layers caused by QAS, which changed the appearance of MMT, increased the hydrophobicity, adsorption site, contact number and interaction energy of MMT with ZEN in corn oil. Adsorption experiments indicated that adsorption process of QAS modified MMT on ZEN was mainly chemical adsorption. Notably, H-MMT could not only remove pigment and ZEN in corn oil, but also improve oil quality by decreasing peroxide value and acid value. Therefore, H-MMT could be used as a potential adsorbent for the removal of ZEN from vegetable oil.