The high tendency of montmorillonite (MMT) or carbon nanotube (CNT) agglomeration makes their uniform dispersion as reinforcements in biopolymer a great challenge. Herein, CNT was acidified to produce carboxylic groups and then grafted with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH550) followed by reacting with glacial acetic acid, which introduced ammonium salt onto the surface of CNT. The ammonium salt-grafted CNT could intercalate into the interlayers of MMT through cation exchange reaction between the alkylammonium cations and the sodium cations of MMT to form a self-assembled MMT-CNT hybrid nanostructure. In this nanostructure, tubular CNT sandwiched between the interlayer of MMT reduced the stacking of MMT, whereas the lamellar MMT acted as steric hindrance to block the entanglement of CNT, thus improving the dispersion of each other via a synergistic effect. As a result, the incorporation of MMT-CNT hybrid into poly-l-lactic acid scaffold enhanced the mechanical properties, including tensile strength and modulus increased by 113.04% and 111.46%, respectively, and compressive strength and modulus increased by 58.20% and 63.27%, respectively. In addition, the scaffold exhibited improved hydrophilicity and degradability, and favorable affinity for cell adhesion, growth and proliferation.

蒙脱石 (MMT) 或碳纳米管 (CNT) 团聚的高趋势使得它们作为生物聚合物中的增强剂均匀分散是一个巨大的挑战。在此，碳纳米管被酸化以产生羧基，然后用氨基丙基三乙氧基硅烷（KH550）接枝，然后与冰醋酸反应，将铵盐引入碳纳米管表面。铵盐接枝的CNT可以通过烷基铵阳离子和MMT的钠阳离子之间的阳离子交换反应嵌入到MMT的夹层中，形成自组装的MMT-CNT杂化纳米结构。在这种纳米结构中，夹在 MMT 夹层之间的管状 CNT 减少了 MMT 的堆积，而层状 MMT 则作为空间位阻阻止了 CNT 的缠结，从而通过协同效应改善彼此的分散。因此，将 MMT-CNT 杂化物掺入聚l-乳酸支架增强了力学性能，包括拉伸强度和模量分别提高了113.04%和111.46%，压缩强度和模量分别提高了58.20%和63.27%。此外，支架表现出改善的亲水性和降解性，以及对细胞粘附、生长和增殖的良好亲和力。