Clays play an important role in a wide variety of industrial processes. Indeed, they present interesting surface properties. For these reasons, we study the surface energy of models of clays by solid state calculations using electronegativities equalization. In this article, we focus on kaolinite and serpentine, two clays characterized by a simple structure of the TO type. We describe the clays and their structures and we develop a simple model from solid state calculations used to determine the surface energy. The results are in agreement with a recent interpretation of the immersion of kaolinite in water. This article must be related to some others focusing on solid surface energy, especially some treating talc and chlorites, and montmorillonites saturated by alkaline cations, to be published. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Inc.