Research Progress of Silicate Clay Minerals in Antibacterial Applications

Silicate clay minerals possess unique chemistry compositions, micro morphology structures, and physicochemical properties, which make them useful in a broad application in antibacterial fields. Through chemosmosis, some antibacterial elements in silicate clay minerals can directly react with the cell membrane and cytoplasm. By controllable adjustment of the surface charge, silicate clay minerals can be adsorbed to the surface of the bacteria and release the antibacterial agents with controllable amount. The micro morphology structures enable silicate clay minerals to serve as a matrix to load the antibacterial inorganic and organic materials, which can improve the antibacterial effects and undermine the bio-toxicity to prepare the antibacterial nanocomposites with high stability, strong and durable antibacterial effect. The two antibacterial mechanisms of silicate clay minerals including chemiosmosis and physical absorption were reviewed in this paper, the synergistic effects and antibacterial product applications of antibacterial nanocomposites based on silicate clay minerals were further discussed to explore the feasibility of silicate clay minerals in industrial applications of the antibacterial fields.