Clays and environment at the 14th International Clay Conference

摘要

The 14 International Clay Conference, the quadrennial meeting of the International Association for the Study of Clays (AIPEA; Association Internationale pour l'Etude des Argiles) was organized around eight topics focused on cutting edge sciences. This meeting in Castellaneta Marina, Taranto, Italy (June 14-20, 2009) brought together the most relevant group of clay senior scientists, young researchers and students ever to occur. They were involved in 43 sessions ranging from clay mineralogy to nanomaterials via bioclays as well as the origin of life, soil sciences, etc. The application of clay mineralogy and geochemistry to health and environmental problems has been an emerging field over the last years. Specialized journals in Mineralogy and Geochemistry are devoting special issues to address particular aspects. This special issue of Applied Clay Science on "Clays and Environment" contains nine articles based on selected contributions presented during the several subsections of the Health and Environment topic. The reader will have the impression that this special issue collects very different contributions from each other. It is a correct impression: the papers come from 10 different sessions of the Clay and Health topic. This testifies how wide the application of clays to environmental problems is and how much there is still to be done in order to define their role. Physico-chemical properties of clay minerals such as surface area, ion exchange capacity, surface charge, swelling capacity, etc., as well as mechanical and hydraulic properties make clays extremely versatile materials both for their behaviour in soils and their application in technology and remediation.