Several recently identified commercially significant processes involving a range of organic reactants are catalyzed by certain cation-exchanged sheet silicates, which can be derived from a number of commonly available clay minerals. Methods of characterizing these catalysts, as well as techniques that throw light on the chemical nature and orientation of the intercalated reactants are discussed with the aid of specific examples utilizing various spectroscopic and diffraction methods. A unified mechanistic interpretation, based on the Brönsted acidity of the catalysts, accounting for the facile production of esters, ethers, certain dimers and polymeric hydrocarbons, is given.
