Surface chemistry of layered silicate minerals

The surface characteristics, including surface charge and wettability, of layered silicates are reviewed based on experimental results and molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) results. The surface charge features of important clay minerals including mica, talc, and kaolinite are described from atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements, electrophoresis measurements, and/or results from potentiometric titration. In addition, the wetting characteristics of the silica tetrahedral surface which is common to all clay minerals are discussed and compared with different experimental techniques. The wettability of the silica tetrahedral face and alumina octahedral face of kaolinite is discussed based on MDS results as well as recent AFM results.