Palygorskite (PAL) is a natural fibrous clay mineral which attracted tremendous attention as reinforcing agent to polymers. In this paper, a facile and environmental friendly modification process of PAL by poly acrylic acid (PAA) via in-situ polymerization in PAL/water gel has been reported. The effects of PAA modified PAL (PAA-PAL) on the mechanical and thermal properties of waterborne polyurethane (WPU) nanocomposites have been investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that the dispersion of PAL has improved dramatically after PAA modification. Tensile tests showed that PAA-PAL has a significant reinforcement effect on WPU matrix. Addition of 10 wt% PAA-PAL, the tensile strength and the Young’s modulus of WPU composites increased 235 % and 388 %, respectively. Furthermore, the thermal stability of WPU also has been distinctly improved via addition of PAA-PAL.

坡缕石（PAL）是天然纤维粘土矿物，作为聚合物的增强剂引起了极大的关注。在本文中，已经报道了通过聚丙烯酸（PAA）通过原位聚合在PAL /水凝胶中进行PAL的简便，环保的改性方法。研究了PAA改性PAL（PAA-PAL）对水性聚氨酯（WPU）纳米复合材料的机械和热性能的影响。扫描电子显微镜（SEM）表明，PAA改性后，PAL的分散性得到了显着改善。拉伸试验表明，PAA-PAL对WPU基体具有明显的增强作用。加入10 wt％PAA-PAL，WPU复合材料的拉伸强度和杨氏模量分别增加了235％和388％。此外，