An exact knowledge of the chemical constitution of the surfaces of clay minerals is necessary to understand their properties. For this purpose as many methods as possible should be applied. One of these methods is the preparation and characterization of organic derivatives of clay minerals. Thus for example it ought to be possible to determine surface Si—OH groups.
The preparation of organic derivatives of clay minerals is not astonishing at all. Already in the last century Ebelman in 1846, Friedel and Crafts in 1863 and others prepared molecules containing carbon and silicon. Most outstanding is the work of Kipping accomplished between 1899 and 1944.