Three methods have been mainly used to modify palygorskite in the preparation of environmental mineraological material, namely, mechanical modification, physical modification and chemical modification. Both mechanical modification and physical modification are characterized by simplified technology, and chemical modification has its own characteristic of high efficiency and has more application than the former two, while, just with only one modification method, it is difficult to meet the requirements of physical and chemical capabilities applied to environmental field. Consequently, a deep and systematic research shoule be carried out to improve the basic properties of palygorskite, which could reveal the decontaminaton mechanism of the environmental minerals, thus modification process further increasing purification performance could be put forwad and extend the application field of palygorskite.