Highly Rapid Preparation of a Bio-modified Nanoclay with Chitosan

Nanoclays are widely used in preparation of polymer clay nanocomposites. Theyare mostly prepared through cation exchange reaction between clay andcationic intercalants. Alkyl ammonium salts and alkyl amines are usually usedas intercalants for the nanoclay preparation. Due to the toxicity of the intercalants, thecurrent commercial nanoclays are not suitable for bio-applications. In the presentreport, a biological macromolecule (chitosan) was selected for the clay modification.The obtained bio-modified nanoclay can be used to prepare polymer-clay nanocompositesfor various applications in biomedicine. In addition, this report comprises thefirst successful attempts to use a new approach for rapid preparation of chitosan-intercalatedbentonite under green conditions. The conventional time-consuming manner(6-48 h) was replaced with a novel approach to quicken the reaction very considerably.XRD Studies exhibit that the clay galleries were increased from 12.34 to 16.45ºA usinga combination of ultrasound (30 min)-microwave (3 min)-irradiation.