Organo-attapulgite was obtained by modifying attapulgite with hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide．A new organo-attapulgite based superabsorbent composite was prepared by polymerization of organo-attapulgite dispersed aerylamide

using N

N’-methylenebisacrylamide as a erosslinker and ammonium porsulfate as an imtiator．The structure

morphology

thermal stability of organo-attapulgite and the composite were characterized by FTIR．XRD

SEM

TEM and TGA

respectively．The results indicated that a nanocomposite was successfully obtained after incorporating organo-attapulglte into the polyaerylamide network．The thermal stability and water absorbencv of the nanoeomposite were improved greatly after the organifieation of attapulgite．Water absorbeneies for the nanocomposite incorporated with 10 wt％ HDTMA-APT in distilled water and in a 0.9 wt％ NaCl solution were 2803 gg-1 and 121 gg-1

respectively．