Bionanocomposites based on chitosan intercalation in designed swelling high-charged micas.

Bionanocomposites based on layered inorganic components, as clays, and polymers of biological origin, as chitosan, have a major impact in medical and environmental fields, being economical and environmentally friendly materials. Na-Mn micas (n = 2 and 4) with controlled surface charge, high cation exchange capacity and swelling behaviour, are attractive inorganic composite components that exhibit improved adsorption properties compared to other inorganic solids which makes them potentially useful for bionanocomposites. The goal of this research was to explore the potential use of those synthetic brittle micas to form eco-friendly bionanocomposites with chitosan biopolymer.

Self-Assembling of Tetradecylammonium Chain on Swelling High Charge Micas (Na-Mica-3 and Na-Mica-2): Effect of Alkylammonium Concentration and Mica Layer Charge.

A family of tetradecylammonium micas is synthesized using synthetic swelling micas with high layer charge (Na(n)Si(8-n)Al(n)Mg6F4O20·XH2O, where n = 2 and 3) exchanged with tetradecylammonium cations. The molecular arrangement of the surfactant is elucidated on the basis of XRD patterns and DTA. The ordering conformation of the surfactant molecules into the interlayer space of micas is investigated by IR/FT, (13)C, (27)Al, and (29)Si MAS NMR.