New Progress on Rectorite/Polymer Nanocomposites

Rectorite is a kind of layered silicate originated from Hubei province; it has unique structure characteristic albeit with the structure and characteristic much like those of montmorillonite. Rectorite is a regularly interstratified clay mineral with alternate pairs of dioctahedral mica―like layer (nonexpansible) and dioctahedral montmorillonite―like layer (expansible) in 1:1 ratio. In recent years, rectorite has been widely used in the preparation of polymer/layered silicate nanocomposite. This paper introduced the structure and surface modification of rectorite and the structure and preparation method of rectorite/polymer nanocomposite. In particular, the new results of chitosan― based rectorite nanocomposite were summarized. The researchers prepared a series of chitosan―based rectorite nanocomposites via simple solution intercalation, although the rectorite content in these studies was higher than that of other reports, rectorite still dispersed well in the chitosan matrix, there were hydrogen―bonding and electrostatic interactions between rectorite and chitosan. Moreover, the researchers studied antimicrobial activity and mechanism, adsorption capacity, drug―controlled release behavior, gene transfection capacity and structure―property relationship of chitosan―based rectorite nanocomposites. In addition, the films, microsphere and nanoparticles of chitosan―based rectorite nanocomposites were prepared and their properties such as mechanical property, barrier ability, antiultraviolet capacity, thermal stability were studied. At last, the future research of rectorite/polymer nanocomposite was expected.