The knowledge of the electrochemical properties of the mineral particles of highly weathered soils is indispensable for the advance of the studies in different Soil Science areas, like as, Soils Physics, Conservation and Management, Fertility and Pollution. In this context, the surface charge behavior and its relationship with the mineralogy of variable charge soils is of fundamental importance to the understanding and the improvement of the predictive capability of several phenomena, such as, floculation and dispersion of colloids, cations exchange, anion adsorption, specially phosphates, heavy metals adsorption, etc. Therefore, this literature review aims at to make a scientific approach of the topic "Electrochemistry of colloidal particles and its relationship with the mineralogy of highly weathered soils", in which, the historical evolution of the knowledge in this field is covered and the challenges to the development of the research in this area are raised. Different tendencies and views existing in the literature about Zero Points of Charge (ZPC), Charge Characterization and Measurement, ZPCs Terminology and Simbology and Relationship between Charge and Minerals of the highly weathered soils are also presented. Basic concepts are revisited and new or seldom used concepts in Soil Science are presented and discussed with the objective of improving the understanding and refining the interpretation of such important branch of the Soil Chemistry and Mineralogy field.
ZPC; surface charge; tropical soils; mineralogy