Reactive and functional clay through UV‐triggered thiol‐ene interfacial click reaction

Clay/mercaptosuccinic acid hybrids were prepared through radical thiol‐ene coupling between methacrylate‐silanized clay and mercaptosuccinic acid. The clay surface was modified by 3‐trimethoxysilylpropylmethacrylate, then mercaptosuccinic acid was clicked by ultraviolet (UV)‐triggered thiol‐ene addition reaction at 365 nm. Pristine and modified clays were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), attenuated total reflection (ATR) and XPS. The clay/mercaptosuccinic acid material was employed as an adsorbent for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solutions. Kinetic studies indicated that the adsorption of Pb(II) followed the pseudo‐first‐order equation while the Langmuir model fitted the adsorption isotherm. The maximum adsorption was found to be 74.7 mg/g for an equilibrium time of ~80 min. UV‐triggered thiol‐ene reaction is demonstrated to be an easy and elegant pathway for designing reactive and functional clay for environmental and other applications.