High curing temperature and big brittleness are two disadvantages of heat resistant thermosetting resins. To simultaneously resolve these problems, surface functionalized fibrous attapulgite (N-ATT) was used to modify 4,4'-bismaleimidodiphenylmethane (BDM)/2,2'-diallyl bisphenol A (DBA) resin, and then a new kind of high performance nanocomposites (BD/N-ATT) were developed. The structure and properties of BD/N-ATT nanocomposites with different loadings of N-ATT were intensively studied. Results prove that the surface functionalization of attapulgite endows N-ATT has multi-effects with BD resin, and thus change the chemical and aggregation state (including crosslinking density and free volume) structures of the cross linked network, and consequently, the composites have obviously different properties from BD resin. For the composite with only 0.5 wt% N-ATT, its impact strength is about 1.6 times the value of BD resin, while the glass transition temperature and initial degradation temperature are about 25 and 20 degrees C higher than those of BD resin, respectively. The attractive properties of BD/N-ATT composites with a small loading of N-ATTs suggest that the composites have great potential in many cutting-edge fields; besides, interestingly, the method developed herein suggests a new way to develop high performance resins and related composites with simultaneously improved curing feature, toughness and thermal resistance. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.