“…They are among the most dominant minerals in many soils and clay deposits. These types of clay minerals impart unique properties as a result of their intrinsic shrink–swell characteristics. − At low moisture content, crystalline swelling of 2:1 layer silicates proceeds in a stepwise expansion of the layer-to-layer distance. − The swelling shows hysteresis and desorption, and adsorption of water proceeds differently. − In this paper, we studied the hysteresis in clay swelling as a function of relative humidity (rh) using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), gas adsorption analysis, and infrared (IR) spectroscopy and related these experimental results to the intrinsic properties (e.g., layer charge, charge location, octahedral composition, and particle size) of the clay minerals being studied. Besides their widespread importance in soils, clay minerals are also used in many different applications, such as construction materials or barrier materials in waste repositories .…”