invention relates to the creation of cellulose based materials having an increased range of temperatures they will tolerate before undergoing degradation and the ability of these materials to create high levels of char yield which is used as a factor to determine level of flammability as compared to untreated material it has been found that cellulosic materials treated with clays such as smectic clays hectorites and synthetic clays produce materials that have increased degradation temperatures and enhanced char yields the synthetic clays should have a negative surface charge and be regarded as hydrophobic colloids examples of usable synthetic clays are laponite cloisite flurohectorite hydrotalcite and hematite preferred clays are clays of the smectic class types of smectic clays include aliettite beidellite hectorite montmorillonite nontronite saponite sauconite stevensite swinefordite volkonskoite yakhontovite and zincsilite the nanocomposites produced contain clay at a level of 0 5 25 of the cellulose clay composition with a preferred range being 5 15 and a most preferred range of 7 10 we have found that cellulose including cotton may be totally or partially dissolved with a solvent and then have a clay such as a smectic clay hectorite or a synthetic clay mixed with it partial dissolution is defined as being a minimum of 50 by weight of the cellulose dissolved this mixing results in the creation of nanocomposites wherein the clay.