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 chitosanbased 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.