Applied clay mineralogy today and tomorrow

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Abstract
The clay minerals kaolin, smectite and palygorskite-sepiolite are among the world's most important and useful industrial minerals. Clay minerals are important in a number of geological applications such as stratigraphic correlations, indicators of environments of deposition and temperature for generation of hydrocarbons. In agriculture, the clay minerals are a major component of soils and determinant of soil properties. The clay minerals are important in construction where they are a major constituent in brick and tile. The physical and chemical properties of the clay minerals determine their utilization in the process industries.What about tomorrow? Processing techniques will be improved and new equipment will be available so that improved clay mineral products will be available. Pillared clays and nanocomposites will become important. Further developments in organoclay technology and surface treatments will provide new usages for these special clays. Tomorrow will see further growth and utilization of the clay minerals.