Metal-Modified Clays and Clay Minerals and their Application in Water and Waste Water Treatment

Dear Colleagues,

Clay and clay minerals, soils occur naturally and in abundance around the world, they are cheaply available. Clay and clay minerals have been used over decades for the fabrication of ceramic materials and are known as good filters for water treatment. They have been applied successfully for decades in the adsorption of metal ions and anions from aqueous solutions, which is the basis of their application in ceramic water filters. Compared to available commercial adsorbents and membranes, clay and clay minerals have several advantages in that they are low cost, abundant, non-toxic, have a high specific surface area and excellent adsorption properties, and possess high ion exchange capacity. They have the potential for the exchange of cations and anions, and, hence, applications in wastewater treatment. Clay and clay mineral surfaces are negatively charged and mostly will adsorb positively charged species such as metal ions from water and wastewater. The application of clay and clay minerals in the adsorption of cations and anions from wastewater is often limited by their surface area and surface charge. Clay and clay minerals are often chemically modified by metal ions, metal oxides, and organic moieties in an attempt to alter or enhance their surface properties leading to an increase in surface area and functional groups that would, in turn, increase their adsorption capacity for both cations and anions. Clay and clay minerals have also been modified through various methods such as hydrothermal treatment at low and high temperature to mesoporous, microporous, and porous geopolymeric materials which are in turn modified with metal ions or metal oxides and applied for adsorption of various pollutants water and wastewater.

This Special Issue encourages the submission of manuscripts that address multiple issues of metal-modified clay and clay minerals and their application in water and wastewater treatment. The aspects covered in this issue include but are not limited to the following:

• Application of raw clay and clay minerals in water and wastewater treatment.
• Innovative metal, metal oxide modification of clay and clay minerals.
• Application of the metal-modified clay and clay minerals in water and wastewater treatment.
• Beneficiation of clay and clay minerals into innovative adsorbents such as zeolites, other microporous, mesoporous, and geopolymeric materials for application in water and wastewater treatment.
• Modification of clay and clay minerals with anionic and cationic surfactants and their application for adsorption of various pollutants from water and wastewater.
• Any aspects that speak to the modification of clay and clay minerals and their application in water and wastewater treatment.

Prof. Dr. Wilson Gitari
Dr. Wasiu Babatunde Ayinde
Dr. Rabelani Mudzielwana
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.