Palygorskite Nanomaterials: Structure, Properties, and Functional Applications

One-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials play very important roles in the fields of modern industry, engineering, and functional materials. When people have to pay a very high price to synthesize 1D nanomaterial, the naturally produced nanomaterials with diverse morphologies, applicability, and environmentally friendly advantages are gradually attracting attention. Palygorskite is a naturally available 1D nanomaterial with a special rod-like crystal structure, excellent properties, and abundant reserves in nature; it has shown great application potential in many fields, including the chemical, environmental protection, functional material, biomedicine, and building material industries. In recent years, the rapid development and application of modern nanotechnology make it possible to transform the palygorskite minerals into highly dispersed 1D nanorods by a physical/or chemical disassociation or splitting process of palygorskite crystal bundles or aggregates, which enable it to be used in the area of high-performance functional materials. This chapter expounds the mineral occurrence, resource distribution, crystal structure, microscopic morphology, and physicochemical features of palygorskite. Mainly summarized, the recent research progress on the dispersion of crystal bundles or aggregates of natural palygorskite, the surface modifications of palygorskite, structure evolution, and regulation of palygorskite and associated minerals, as well as their applications as “green” components to fabricate a variety of new functional materials. The development trends of palygorskite-based materials and their future potential applications in advanced functional materials are discussed in general and are drawn from scientific literature. This chapter will arouse more attention for the key role palygorskite can play in developing various micro/nano functional materials.