Book excerpt: Clay minerals are layer silicates with a large propensity for adsorbing and intercalating simple and polymeric organic molecules. Because of their fine particle size, extensive surface area, layer structure, and peculiar charge characteristics, clay minerals can also act as efficient solid acid catalysts and catalyst carriers/supports. Besides being easy to separate from the reaction mixture and recyclable, clay minerals are abundant, inexpensive, and nonpolluting. Moreover, layer silicates offer a reduced dimensionality of reaction space in which introduced organic species can meet and collide. This book provides an insight into the relationship between the surface properties of clay minerals and their catalytic activity. Organized into eight comprehensive chapters, the volume describes and discusses the ability of clay minerals to serve as solid acid catalysts for a large range and variety of organic conversions and transformations. This book is a valuable reference for research scientists and industrial chemists who use, or contemplate using, clay minerals as catalysts for targeted organic reactions and syntheses. The present text will also be of interest to environmental and soil chemists as well as teachers and postgraduate students of organic geochemistry and solid acid catalysis. Book jacket.