How Minerals React with Water

Reactions between mineral surfaces and water play an important role in dissolution, precipitation, and sorption processes, thereby affecting a wide range of natural and technological processes. In his Perspective, Brown charts recent progress toward understanding these complex interfacial processes. Progress has been greatly aided by new techniques that allow atomic-scale characterization under reactive conditions. Many aspects of mineral surface reactivity have been elucidated, but many aspects of the structure and properties of water near the interface remain uncertain.