Comptes Rendus Chimie

Vanessa Brito

Adriana O. Santos

Paulo Almeida

Samuel Silvestre

Novel 4-azaandrostenes as prostate cancer cell growth inhibitors: Synthesis, antiproliferative effects, and molecular docking studies

Editorial Board - English

Alain Louis-Joseph

Philippe Lesot

Designing and building a low-cost portable FT-NMR spectrometer in 2019: A modern challenge

Editorial Board - French

Sommaire / Contents

Liva Dzene

Mejdi Jeguirim

Jocelyne Brendlé

Lionel Limousy

C. R. Chimie 22 (2019) 103e104
lable at ScienceDirectContents lists avaiComptes Rendus Chimie
www.sciencedirect.comForeword
Second international symposium
Clays and ceramics for environmental applicationsThis thematic issue, entitled Clays and ceramics for
environmental applications, is dedicated to the second in-
ternational symposium “Clays and ceramics”, organized by
the Latvian Clay Science Society held on 29e31 January
2018 in Riga (Latvia).
The aims of the symposium were to promote closer in-
teractions between scientists from different institutes in
Baltics to increase their scientific capacity by providing
networking opportunities and high-quality lectures from
invited colleagues from abroad and to promote the field of
clay science among students in natural sciences. All in all,
42 delegates from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Swe-
den, Algeria, Tunisia, France, Germany, Cyprus, Spain, and
Croatia attended the symposium. Among the participants
were present scientists and doctoral students from every
local research institute having projects related to clay sci-
ence. The symposium programwas organized in four parts:
(1) environmental aspects of clays in geology and modern
soils; (2) clay-based composite materials; (3) diffusion,
sorption and cation exchange processes involving clay
minerals; and (4) clays in archaeology and arts. It can be
said that such repartition of presented research, although
not done on purpose, represents well the topics developed
in clay science in Baltics.
Clay science is indeed an exciting area of research
serving as a crossroad between many scientific disciplines.
Joint efforts from scientists with different backgrounds in
physics, chemistry, geology, agriculture, engineering, and
material science have allowed us to advance our under-
standing of the complexity of clay mineral structure, their
reactivity, and numerous possible applications. The
continuous improvement in our knowledge of these
layered nanomaterials contributes addressing global envi-
ronmental issues such as wastewater treatment, produc-
tion of sustainable materials, and application of sustainable
agriculture practices. The large diversity of applications of
clay minerals and ceramics is represented by the 18 articles
selected for this thematic issue.
Such a wide range of applications is possible because of
numerous options for clay mineral functionalization or usehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.2019.03.004
1631-0748/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Académie desof a mix of natural clay minerals with distinct properties.
Thus, Nabbou et al. [1] and Abidi et al. [2] in their studies
suggest that the use of natural North African clay (amixture
of kaolinite and illite) can be more advantageous compared
with that of pure kaolinite, because the adsorption of
fluoride and red dye RR120 anions onto the samples of
natural minerals is higher than that for reference clay
samples. Barhoumi et al. [3] explores the potential of the
use of local Tunisian clay resources in pelotherapy.
The works of Guegan [4], Solarte et al. [5], Khelifi and
Ayari [6], and Guiza et al. [7] describe the improvement in
the properties of clays by functionalizing themwith organic
substances, metal nanoparticles, metal pillars or treating
them with acid. Guegan [4] reviews different methods for
the preparation of organoclays and discusses their poten-
tial as sorbents for wastewater organic contaminants. The
functionalization of organoclay makes it possible to change
the initial hydrophobic character of the material to a
lyophilic one and to confer on it the ability to adsorb aprotic
organic molecules. Moreover, the work of Grigale-Sorocina
and Birks [8] shows the possibility to apply such organo-
clays for the stabilization of pigment suspensions. In
addition, functionalizing organoclays with silver nano-
particles confers an antibacterial activity on such materials
[5]. The material properties can also be enhanced by pre-
paring pillared clays. Thus, Khelifi and Ayari [6] demon-
strate that Fe-pillared bentonite has a higher adsorption
capacity towards Congo red compared with raw clay.
Moreover, the specific use of Fe allowed researchers to
apply a photo-Fenton process to degrade the adsorbed
organic molecule and hence to regenerate the catalyst.
Finally, a clay mineral surface can be increased by applying
an acid treatment as reported by Guiza et al. [7], which in
turn increases the material's adsorption capacity.
The treatment of clay minerals and oxides at high
temperatures leads to the fabrication of different ceramics,
which have applications in many sectors. For example,
Issaoui and Limousy [9] review the preparation of low-cost
ceramic membranes and point to their perspective appli-
cation in the food and environmental industries. The articlesciences.
Foreword / C. R. Chimie 22 (2019) 103e104104by Chihi et al. [10] focuses more in detail on the preparation
of a membrane from bentonite, whereas the work of Miron
et al. [11] explores the possibility of applying a ceramic
membrane for the filtration of protein-based solutions.
High-temperature treatments allow one to obtain the
metal-oxideebased catalysts reviewed by Frikha et al. [12].
Such catalysts can serve as precursors for the fabrication of
geopolymers explored in the work of Hamdi et al. [13] or
can be successfully applied to CO2 hydrogenation, as re-
ported by Allam et al. [14].
Finally, it is possible to synthesize new materials
inspired by the clay mineral structure. Thus, the research of
Miron et al. [15] reports a functionalization of a carbon
electrode with a thin film with talc-like structure success-
fully applied in the electro-Fenton process. The study of
Dutournie et al. [16] applies clay-based material for the
release of tryptophane, a molecule for plan nutrition in
agriculture, and the work of Chaillot et al. [17] reports the
synthesis of novel hybrid organic-inorganic saponite-like
compounds. New materials from limestone and sewage
sludge were also proposed by Perez-Gimeno et al. [18] for
water irrigation treatments.
We would like to express our gratitude to authors who
contributed to this thematic issue, as well as to the main
partner of the event, the University of Latvia, and especially
to Professor Valdis Segliņs for his support in organizing the
symposium. The Latvian Clay Group was very honored by
the presence of the President of AIPEA, Professor Reiner
Dohrmann, and members of the French Clay Group. We
thank them for their enthusiasm and support in organizing
the Clay meetings in Northern Europe and in preparing this
thematic issue devoted to the symposium. The Guest Edi-
tors of this thematic issue are thankful to the Editor-in-
Chief of the Comptes rendus Chimie, Professor Pierre
Braunstein, for providing them with an opportunity to
publish this thematic issue. Thanks are also due to Mrs.
Fatima Messadi and Mrs. Marie Christine Brissot, Editorial
and Scientific Secretaries, respectively, and the entire pro-
duction team of the journal for their valuable support in
bringing out this issue. Last but not least, our sincere
appreciation is due to all the reviewers for their invaluable
and critical comments on the manuscripts that were sub-
mitted for this thematic issue.References
[1] N. Nabbou, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
crci.2018.09.010.
[2] N. Abidi, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.
2018.10.006.
[3] T. Barhoumi, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
crci.2018.11.006.
[4] R. Guegan, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.
2018.09.004.
[5] A.M.F. Solarte, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.crci.2018.09.006.
[6] S. Khelifi, F. Ayari, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
crci.2018.12.001.
[7] S. Guiza, H. Hajji, M. Bagane, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.crci.2018.12.XXX.
[8] Z. Grigale-Sorocina, I. Birks, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.crci.2018.11.011.
[9] M. Issaoui, L. Limousy, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.crci.2018.09.014.
[10] R. Chihi, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.
2018.12.002.
[11] S.M. Miron, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
crci.2018.09.011.
[12] K. Frikha, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.
2018.10.004.
[13] N. Hamdi, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
crci.2018.11.010.
[14] D. Allam, S. Bennici, L. Limousy, S. Hocine, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.2018.11.XXX.
[15] S.M. Miron, J. Brendle, L. Josien, F. Fourcade, F. Rojas, A. Amrane, L.
Limousy, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.2018.
10.XXX.
[16] P. Dutournie, et al., C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
crci.2018.10.008.
[17] D. Chaillot, J. Miehe-Brendle, S. Bennici, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crci.2018.10.XXX.
[18] A. Perez-Gimeno, J. Navarro-Pedre~no, M.B. Almendro-Candel, I.
Gomez, A.A. Zorpas, C. R. Chimie 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.crci.2018.10.XXX.
Liva Dzene*, Mejdi Jeguirim, Jocelyne Brendle,
Lionel Limousy
Institut de science des materiaux de Mulhouse, France
 Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: liva.dzene@uha.fr (L. Dzene);
mejdi.jeguirim@uha.fr (M. Jeguirim);
jocelyne.brendle@uha.fr (J. Brendle); lionel.limousy@uha.fr
(L. Limousy)


Second international symposium <i>Clays and ceramics for environmental applications</i>

Régis Guégan

Organoclay applications and limits in the environment

Sami Guiza

Houda Hajji

Mohamed Bagane

External mass transport process during the adsorption of fluoride from aqueous solution by activated clay

Moau Jian Toh

Pei Ching Oh

Thiam Leng Chew

Abdul Latif Ahmad

Antiwettability enhancement of PVDF-HFP membrane via superhydrophobic modification by SiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles

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Novel 4-azaandrostenes as prostate cancer cell growth inhibitors: Synthesis, antiproliferative effects, and molecular docking studies

Editorial Board - English

Designing and building a low-cost portable FT-NMR spectrometer in 2019: A modern challenge

Editorial Board - French

Sommaire / Contents

Second international symposium <i>Clays and ceramics for environmental applications</i>

Organoclay applications and limits in the environment

External mass transport process during the adsorption of fluoride from aqueous solution by activated clay

Editorial Board - French

Antiwettability enhancement of PVDF-HFP membrane via superhydrophobic modification by SiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles

2,199

3,559