Clays are the siblings of graphite and graphene/graphene-oxide. There are two basic ways of using clays for encapsulation of sub-micron entities such as molecules, droplets, or nanoparticles, which is either by encapsulation in the interlayer space of clay nanolayered stacked particles (“the graphite way”), or by using exfoliated clay nanolayers to wrap entities in packages (“the graphene way”). Clays maybe the prerequisites for life on earth and can also be linked to the natural formation of other two-dimensional materials such as naturally occurring graphite and its allotropes. Here we discuss state-of-the-art in the area of clay-based encapsulation and point to some future scientific directions and technological possibilities that could emerge from research in this area.

粘土是石墨和石墨烯/氧化石墨烯的兄弟。使用粘土来封装亚微米实体（例如分子、液滴或纳米粒子）有两种基本方法，一种是封装在粘土纳米层堆叠颗粒的层间空间中（“石墨方式”），另一种是使用剥离的粘土纳米层将实体包裹在包装中（“石墨烯方式”）。粘土可能是地球上生命的先决条件，也可能与其他二维材料（例如天然存在的石墨及其同素异形体）的自然形成有关。在这里，我们讨论粘土封装领域的最新技术，并指出该领域研究可能出现的一些未来科学方向和技术可能性。