Abstract: Organic montmorillonites(OMMT) were prepared through ion exchange method using cationic surfactant cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide(CTAB), anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS) and their mixture(CTAB-SDS). The structures of OMMT were characterized by FT-IR and XRD. The results show that CTAB and CTAB-SDS are intercalated into the layers of montmorillonite while SDS is not. The distances between the montmorillonite layers are increased from 1.5601 nm to 2.1946 nm and 1.8935 nm when CTAB and CTAB-SDS are used respectively. The resulted OMMTs with increased layer distances have a good dispersibility in styrene and show improved adsorption toward phenol.

Key words: montmorillonite, organic modification, surfactant