Research Article Multifunctional Epoxy/Nanocomposites Based on Natural Moroccan Clays with High Antimicrobial Activity: Morphological, Thermal and Mechanical Properties M. Monsif, 1,2 A. Zerouale, 1 N. Idrissi Kandri, 2 R. Bertani , 3 A. Bartolozzi, 3 B. M. Bresolin, 3 F. Zorzi, 4 F. Tateo, 5 M. Zappalorto , 6 M. Quaresimin, 6 and P. Sgarbossa 3 1 Laboratory of Chemistry of Condensed Matter, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Road Imouzzer, B.P. 2202 Atlas Fes, Morocco 2 Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Road Imouzzer, B.P. 2202 Atlas Fes, Morocco 3 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 9, Padova, Italy 4 Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, via Gradenigo 6, 35131 Padova, Italy 5 C.N.R. Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, via Gradenigo 6, 35131 Padova, Italy 6 Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova, Stradella San Nicola 3, 36100 Vicenza, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to R. Bertani; roberta.bertani@unipd.it and M. Zappalorto; zappalorto@gest.unipd.it Received 25 March 2019; Revised 30 July 2019; Accepted 3 September 2019; Published 22 November 2019 Academic Editor: Domenico Acierno Copyright © 2019 M. Monsif et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In this study, a series of new epoxy/clay nanocomposites (ECN) has been prepared and characterized in order to investigate the properties and compare the effect of the unmodified Moroccan clay on the structure and properties of the composite materials. Five natural clays have been used to reinforce the neat epoxy resin with 1% wt and 5% wt achieving the clay dispersion only through strong milling and mechanical stirring without previous organic modifications of the clays. The quality of clay dispersion in the epoxy matrix and the morphology of nanocomposites have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanical and thermal properties have also been investigated. The antimicrobial activity of the nanocomposites has been tested against E. coli and S. aureus in order to evaluate their applicability as advanced antimicrobial materials. The results showed that the epoxy/crude clay nanocomposites exhibited a high inhibition action attending 99% against both bacteria in the case of the clay labeled A5. 1. Introduction In recent years, one of the most intriguing topics concerning polymer nanocomposites is the design and preparation of materials exhibiting improved and/or new properties for a variety of applications [1]. There has been enormous interest from industries for the manufacturing and commercializa- tion of nanocomposites for applications in aerospace [2], automotive [3], packaging [4, 5], electronics [6], and other industrial sectors [7, 8]. These materials also showed a potential use as solution for energy and environmental issues [9]. Nanocomposites are materials based on the combination of a selected matrix and nanodimensional phases. Thus, different materials have been used for their preparation. Among them, polymer nanocomposites containing inorganic nanoscale particles homogeneously dispersed into selected polymer matrices have been extensively investigated and used [10]. The typical nanofiller is clay, but graphite, single- and multiple-wall nanotubes, nanoscale silica [11], and titania [12] have also been investigated. Epoxy resins, exten- sively used in a wide variety of industrial applications, exhibit weak mechanical properties, thus requiring support through Hindawi Journal of Nanomaterials Volume 2019, Article ID 2810901, 12 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2810901