Many clay materials are mixtures of more than one clay mineral. One such mixture involves the interstratification of the layer clay minerals where the individual component layers of two or more kinds are stacked in various ways to make up a new structure different from those of its constituents. These interstratified structures result from the strong similarity that exists between the layers of the different clay minerals, all of which are composed of tetrahedral and octahedral sheets of hexagonal arrays of atoms, and from the distinct difference in the heights (thicknesses) of clay mineral layers.

The most striking examples of interstratified structures are those having a regular ABAB . . . -type structure, where A and B represent two component layers. There are several minerals that are known to have structures of this type—i.e., rectorite (dioctahedral mica/montmorillonite), tosudite (dioctahedral chlorite/smectite), corrensite (trioctahedral vermiculite/chlorite), hydrobiotite (trioctahedral mica/vermiculite), aliettite (talc/saponite), and kulkeite (talc/chlorite). Other than the ABAB . . . type with equal numbers of the two component layers in a structure, many modes of layer-stacking sequences ranging from nearly regular to completely random are possible. The following interstratifications of two components are found in these modes in addition to those given above: illite/smectite, glauconite/smectite, dioctahedral mica/chlorite, dioctahedral mica/vermiculite, and kaolinite/smectite.

As the mixing ratio (proportion of the numbers of layers) for the two component layers varies, the number of possible layer-stacking modes increases greatly. For interstratified structures of three component layers, structures consisting of illite/chlorite/smectite and illite/vermiculite/smectite have been reported. Because certain interstratified structures are known to be stable under relatively limited conditions, their occurrence may be used as a geothermometer or other geoindicator.

Sepiolite and palygorskite

Sepiolite and palygorskite are papyrus-like or fibrous hydrated magnesium silicate minerals and are included in the phyllosilicate group because they contain a continuous two-dimensional tetrahedral sheet of composition Si₂O₅. They differ, however, from the other layer silicates because they lack continuous octahedral sheets. The structures of sepiolite and palygorskite are alike and can be regarded as consisting of narrow strips or ribbons of 2:1 layers that are linked stepwise at the corners. One ribbon is linked to the next by inversion of the direction of the apical oxygen atoms of SiO₄ tetrahedrons; in other words, an elongated rectangular box consisting of continuous 2:1 layers is attached to the nearest boxes at their elongated corner edges. Therefore, channels or tunnels due to the absence of the silicate layers occur on the elongated sides of the boxes. The elongation of the structural element is related to the fibrous morphology of the minerals and is parallel to the a axis. Since the octahedral sheet is discontinuous, some octahedral magnesium ions are exposed at the edges and hold bound water molecules (OH₂). In addition to the bound water, variable amounts of zeolitic (i.e., free) water (H₂O) are contained in the rectangular channels. The major difference between the structures of sepiolite and palygorskite is the width of the ribbons, which is greater in sepiolite than in palygorskite. The width determines the number of octahedral cation positions per formula unit. Thus, sepiolite and palygorskite have the ideal compositions Mg₈Si₁₂O₃₀(OH)₄(OH₂)₄(H₂O)₈ and (Mg, Al, □)₅Si₈O₂₀(OH)₂(OH₂)₄(H₂O)₄, respectively.

Imogolite and allophane

Imogolite is an aluminosilicate with an approximate composition of SiO₂ · Al₂O₃ · 2.5H₂O. This mineral was discovered in 1962 in a soil derived from glassy volcanic ash known as “imogo.” Electron-optical observations indicate that imogolite has a unique morphological feature of smooth and curved threadlike tubes varying in diameter from 10 to 30 nanometres (3.9 × 10⁻⁷ to 1.2 × 10⁻⁶ inches) and extending several micrometres in length. The structure of imogolite is cylindrical and consists of a modified gibbsite sheet in which the hydroxyls of one side of a gibbsite octahedral sheet lose protons and bond to silicon atoms that are located at vacant octahedral cation sites of gibbsite. Thus, three oxygen atoms and one hydroxyl as the fourth anion around one silicon atom make up an isolated SiO₄ tetrahedron as in orthosilicates, and such tetrahedrons make a planar array on the side of a gibbsite sheet. Because silicon-oxygen bonds are shorter than aluminum-oxygen bonds, this effect causes that sheet to curve. As a result, the curved sheet ideally forms a tubelike structure with inner and outer diameters of about 6.4 Å and 21.4 Å, respectively, and with all hydroxyls exposed at the surface. The number of modified gibbsite units therefore determines the diameter of the threadlike tubes.

Allophane can be regarded as a group of naturally occurring hydrous aluminosilicate minerals that are not totally amorphous but are short-range (partially) ordered. Allophane structures are characterized by the dominance of Si-O-Al bonds—i.e., the majority of aluminum atoms are tetrahedrally coordinated. Unlike imogolite, the morphology of allophane varies from fine, rounded particles through ring-shaped particles to irregular aggregates. There is a good indication that the ring-shaped particles may be hollow spherules or polyhedrons. Sizes of the small individual allophane particles are on the order of 30–50 Å in diameter. In spite of their indefinable structure, their chemical compositions surprisingly fall in a relatively narrow range, as the SiO₂:Al₂O₃ ratios are mostly between 1.0 and 2.0. In general, the SiO₂:Al₂O₃ ratio of allophane is higher than that of imogolite.