Advances in the Development and Application of Natural Mineral Functional Materials

Mineral resources are essential components in many of today’s rapidly growing technologies – from water purification and smart construction to batteries. At present, more than 5,000 kinds of natural minerals have been identified and their structures can be confirmed. According to the band gap energy of minerals, they can be divided into conductor minerals, insulator minerals, and semiconductor minerals. Different minerals have been widely used in building materials, energy, environment, medicine, and other fields due to their unique physical and chemical properties, and low cost. However, the direct and large-scale application of natural minerals is still underdeveloped and efficient techniques are required to improve their performance by regulating their physicochemical properties.

This Research Topic aims at highlighting current advances in the development of natural minerals for diverse advanced applications. To valorize natural mineral resources, advanced techniques are required to modify natural minerals’ physicochemical properties (e.g., size, chemical composition, surface chemistry, hydrophilicity, conductivity, and redox properties). In addition, exploring new applications of natural minerals also enhances the value of natural minerals. The synthesis, modification/design strategies, and structure-performance relationship of mineral materials need to be well discussed for guiding the development of next-generation high-performance mineral materials.

The Research Topic of “Advances in the Development and Application of Natural Mineral Functional Materials” welcomes Original Research, Review, Mini Review, and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:
(1) New technologies and methods for the preparation and modification of natural minerals
(2) Physicochemical analysis of mineral materials, especially low-dimensional materials
(3) Applications of natural minerals-based functional materials in advanced energy conversion/storage, such as (photo)electrochemical water splitting, batteries, thermal energy storage, and supercapacitors
(4) Applications of natural minerals-based functional materials in environmental remediation, such as advanced oxidation processes, adsorption, and filtration
(5) Applications of natural minerals-based functional materials in smart construction, medicine, food processing, etc.
(6) Value-added utilization of natural minerals-based wastes

Keywords: Natural mineral material, Functional modification, Clay minerals, Semiconducting mineral, Functional application

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.