Review of the current status and prospects of catalytic materials based on fibrous clay minerals

Natural fibrous clay minerals with one-dimensional morphology have emerged as a pivotal platform for engineering novel sustainable catalysts, driven by their unique geometric architectures, intrinsic eco-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, and abundance. Varieties such as halloysite, attapulgite, and sepiolite feature high aspect ratios, tunable porosity, and enhanced nanoconfinement effects-attributes that critically optimize the dispersion of active components and accelerate mass transport kinetics. Composite catalytic materials based on fibrous clay minerals have higher catalytic efficiency, better dispersibility, superior carrier separation efficiency and better pore structure than pure catalysts. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent breakthroughs in composite catalytic materials derived from these fibrous clay minerals. We systematically discuss the structure-activity relationships that governing the interplay between clay supports and active sites, elucidating how specific mineral architectures confer superior catalytic efficiency, stability, and selectivity. Furthermore, we critically assess the multifaceted utility of these composites across diverse catalytic reaction, including photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, thermal catalysis, microwave-assisted catalysis, persulfate activation, and biocatalysis. These relevant illustrations will provide theoretical basis and scientific support for the application of fibrous clay based catalytic materials. At the end of this review, we point out the current main challenges and future development directions in the field of catalysis. Undoubtedly, the research and preparation of fibrous clay based novel catalytic materials will continue to witness many breakthroughs in the future.