Abstract: Passivation material is a key material for repairing heavy metal contaminated soil in farmland. To study and develop efficient soil heavy metal passivator, thiol-modified montmorillonite was studied. Montmorillonite was used as the raw material, and the thiol group was loaded on the surface or interlayer of montmorillonite to prepare thiol-modified montmorillonite. The characteristics of thiol-modified montmorillonite were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and FTIR, and the indoor soil culture test was carried out. The thiol-modified montmorillonite not only added C-H and S-H covalent bonds, but also enhanced the activity of -OH and C=O chemical bonds, and could adsorb with Cd²⁺ by thiol and hydroxyl coordination. As a result, the occurrence form of Cd in the soil was significantly changed, the ion exchange state was greatly reduced, and the available Cd in the soil absorbed by the crop roots was significantly reduced. After adding 1%, 3% and 5% thiol-modified montmorillonite, the available Cd in soil decreased by 21.92%, 69.11% and 82.90%, respectively. The passivation effect of montmorillonite on soil Cd was significantly improved after thiol modification, and the decrease of available Cd in soil tended to increase with the increase of thiol-modified montmorillonite. The BRIEF REPORT is available for this paper at http://www.ykcs.ac.cn/en/article/doi/10.15898/j.ykcs.202309010147.