Abstract: Rosin is an important biomass resource in China, and its main component resin acid contains tricyclophenylene skeleton strong hydrophobic rigid group and carboxyl weak hydrophilic group. Rosin can be used to disperse inorganic nano materials and reduce the aggregation of inorganic nano materials. The surfactant with excellent hydrophilic and lipophilic properties can be obtained by chemical modification of acid double bond and carboxyl group of rosin resin, which has better "fusion" with inorganic materials. Rosin based surfactant can be used as template and dispersing agent to prepare a variety of inorganic functional materials. The rosin based small molecule/inorganic hybrid materials and rosin modified polymer/inorganic hybrid materials can be obtained by designing functional rosin derivatives to bond with inorganic materials. Based on the structural characteristics and chemical properties of rosin and its derivatives, the application of rosin and its derivatives in inorganic functional materials was reviewed, and the application prospect of rosin derivatives in the development of inorganic functional materials was prospected.