The intercalation and exfoliation behaviour of epoxy resin in an organoclay have been investigated by XRD and DSC methods. It was found that the affinity between the organoclay and epoxy resin was very good and the organoclay was easy to be intercalated by epoxy resin with or without solvent. By direct or solution mixing a stable and homogeneous clay/epoxy intercalated hybrid could be obtained in which the layer spacing of the organoclay was about 3.7nm. At the curing temperature ranging from 80℃ to 160℃ the organoclay was ready to be exfoliated during curing process of the resin and exfoliac\ted nanocomposite could be achieved. It was found that completed exfoliation of the clay could be reached

while the curing degree of the resin was only about 10%.The experiments conducted at 80℃

100℃

120℃ and 150℃ indicated that the time at which complete exfoliation occurred was near to the gelting time of the epoxy resin

meaning that that exfoliation of the clay was dependent on the curing process.