“…First, from a theoretical point of view, clay platelets are flat and atomically smooth with a well-characterized structure and atomic composition, leading to ideal models of solid/liquid interfacial systems. Second, natural and synthetic clays are used in a large variety of industrial applications (drilling, heterogeneous catalysis [8], waste storing [9], food, paint and cosmetic industries), exploiting their various physico-chemical properties (gelling, thixotropy, surface acidity, high specific surface and ionic exchange capacity, water and polar solvent adsorption, swelling). Optimizing applications such as heterogeneous catalysis and waste storing requires quantifying the mobility of solvent molecules and neutralizing counterions inside the porous network of clay minerals.…”