The unique properties of clay minerals including: nanometric scale layered construction, presence of fixed and interchangeable charges, possibility of adsorbing and hosting (intercalating) molecules, ability of forming stable colloidal dispersions, possibility of tailored surface and interlayer chemical modification and others, make the study of clay chemistry a very important and extremely varied field of research.
Many distinct fields and knowledge areas are impacted by the physico-chemical behavior of clay minerals, from environmental sciences to chemical process engineering, from pottery to nuclear waste management.
It also plays an important role in the fate of most Ca2+ arriving from land (river water) into the seas.
The ability to change and control the CEC of clay minerals offers a valuable tool in the development of selective adsorbents with applications as varied as chemical sensors or pollution cleaning substances for contaminated water, for example.
Those interactions also influence a great number of mechanical properties of soils, being carefully studied by building and construction engineering specialists.