In order to study the effect of organoclays on mechanical properties of bio- based epoxy/clay nanocomposites, a reactive organic modifier was synthesized via the reaction of bromobutane with 2,4,6- tris- (dimethylaminomethyl) phenol (DMP- 30) by controlling the mole ratio (2:1). And a non- reactive modifier, fully protonated DMP30 (CPDMP30), was prepared by the acidification of DMP-30. The two organic modifiers were used for the modification of pristine Na⁺-clay and the two different types of organoclay (reactive PP-clay and non-reactive CP-clay) were prepared. Bio-based epoxy/clay nanocomposites with different interfacial strength were synthesized by using the above two organoclays via the “clay- slurry compounding method”. X- ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that the two types of epoxy/clay nanocomposites have nearly the same highly exfoliated microstructure. The tensile test indicate that reactive PP- clay, which can build stronger interfacial strength by chemical reaction, leads to an increase in the tensile strength of the nanocomposites by 135% at 3% organoclay. By contrast, the non-reactive type of CP-clay results in only 109% increase in strength (at the same loading of organoclay). Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) show that the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the nanocomposites is marginally improved relative to neat epoxy resin. In comparison, PP- clay is more effective in enhancing Tg of nanocomposites than CP-clay.