凹凸棒土是一种应用广泛的工业矿物，具有无毒、比表面积大、生物相容性好等优点，能有效应用于传统行业，同时在许多高新技术产业中也有潜在的应用。本文简述了凹土的组成、分布、晶体结构等基本特性，详细回顾了其单独使用或者混合用于无机-有机复合材料、吸附、造纸、电化学和催化等方面的研究进展，尤其介绍了其在生物传感器、光/电催化剂等领域的最新应用，并对凹土的应用特点及存在的问题进行了分析和总结。最后指出为了有效利用凹凸棒土资源，应进一步开发具有高技术含量和高附加值的功能化产品。

Adsorption of Co(II) ions from aqueous sepiolite suspensions has been systematically investigated as a function of several variables including activation conditions, solid to liquid ratio, pH and temperature. The results are analyzed to identify the mechanism of cobalt uptake by sepiolite. Both abstraction and real adsorption isotherms were constructed to isolate the precipitation of cobalt from the real adsorption. Also, for the first time a plausible correlation between the released Mg(II) ions from sepiolite matrix and those adsorbed Co(II) ions is made. A one to one ion exchange mechanism is found to describe the results. The data obtained from adsorption isotherms at different temperatures were fitted to various adsorption models to calculate thermodynamic quantities such as the free energy of adsorption, heat of adsorption and entropy of adsorption. The thermodynamic data indicate that Co(II) adsorption onto sepiolite is entropically driven and characterized by physical adsorption.

为了比较生物炭、凹凸棒土以及生物炭-凹凸棒土复合材料3种钝化剂对锌镉复合污染水稻土的钝化修复效果,本研究利用傅立叶红外光谱(FT-IR)、X射线衍射(XRD)、比表面积表征(BET)和扫描电镜(SEM)等技术手段对稻壳生物炭和凹凸棒土样品进行表征,并采用土培试验研究稻壳生物炭、凹凸棒土及生物炭-凹凸棒土复合材料对实际重金属锌(Zn)、镉(Cd)污染水稻土钝化效果及理化性质的影响。结果表明,凹凸棒土比稻壳生物炭具有更大的比表面积,且表面更不规则、更粗糙。土培试验表明,3种钝化剂均降低了水稻土中Cd和Zn的生物有效性,并在不同程度上改善了土壤理化性质。单独添加2.0%凹凸棒土和2.0%稻壳生物炭处理,分别使土壤Zn有效态含量降低了86%和51%,Cd有效态含量降低了25%和8%。2.0%生物炭-凹凸棒土复合材料施加后,土壤中Zn和Cd有效态含量分别降低了83%和23%,且土壤pH值提高至5.8,有机碳含量提高了39%。说明稻壳生物炭-凹凸棒土复合材料比单独使用凹凸棒土和生物炭更能有效地固定Cd和Zn,同时能改善复合污染水稻土的理化特性。因此,生物炭-凹凸棒土复合材料具有作为一种新型钝化材料用于土壤修复的潜力,为土壤重金属原位钝化修复提供了一种新思路。