From Clay Minerals to Ceramics: Progress and Challenges

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Clays and Engineered Mineral Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 September 2025 | Viewed by 49

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Applied Geology, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: industrial minerals; ceramics and glass-ceramic; bioceramics; glass; geopolymers; waste recycling; supplementary cemetitous materials; calcined clays
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Guest Editor
Departament Enginyeria Minera, Industrial i TIC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08242 Manresa, Spain
Interests: ore deposits; stable isotopes; geochemistry; quantitative mineralogy; geometallurgy; environmental pollution; waste recycling; supplementary cemetitous materials; calcined clays
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of different types of clay for the manufacture of ceramics has been well known since ancient times; man has evolved along with the production of ceramics. Humans have always experimented to improve the applications of clays, introducing them as raw materials to help them enhance ceramics for uses that improve their living conditions. The processes investigated include the pre-treatment of natural clay to purify it and extract its finer parts, the selection of the type of clay according to the desired shape, the introduction of degreasing agents to control tensions and plasticity, the use of fluxing minerals, and so on.

The world of ceramics is evolving towards the sustainable use of raw materials. This is leading to experimentation with the introduction of waste in their formulation, as well as research into the manufacture of glass ceramics and geopolymers. This avoids the generation of waste that affects the environment and reduces the need to extract raw materials from nature.

Finally, clays are the most promising raw material as a complement to increase the reactivity of industrial, mining, construction, and demolition wastes so that they can be used for the production of new materials, such as geopolymers or supplementary cementitous materials. This application is of critical importance for the reduction of CO2 emissions produced during the manufacture of portland cement, which is fundamental in the battle against climate change. In view of the above, there is still a lot of research to be carried out in the field of clays and their ceramic applications.

Dr. Maite Garcia-Valles
Dr. Pura Alfonso
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

Keywords

  • clay minerals
  • thermal properties
  • supplementary cementitious materials
  • calcined clays
  • technological behavior
  • glass ceramics
  • recycling

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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