The effect of nanodisperse particles of Al and Si oxide hydrosols on structure formation of minerals in aqueous suspensions of bentonite and refractory clays was examined. The following were determined during formation of the structure of the ceramic material: pH and structure of clay suspensions, slip fluidity, shrinkage and compressive strength of samples poured from slips made of dried and thermally activated (350°C) clays.Key words: nanodisperse particles, silicon and aluminum oxide hydrosols, aqueous suspensions of clays, properties of ceramic material.The process stages of fabrication of ceramic items are accompanied by successive processes of alteration of structural transformations of the initial raw material, intermediate products, and final (finished) material. For this reason, the basic properties of ceramic materials are a function of both the chemical and mineralogical compositions of the raw materials and their crystal structure. The specific features of the structure of the material begin to be formed on the intermolecular level, the object of examination by nanotechnologists. The systems on this level are not equilibrium and have important internal energy which, in turn, causes the structure of the material to evolve [1,2]. When external events (incorporation of modifiers, thermal activation, etc.) act on the material, structure formation can be affected, and this means the final properties of the material as well. We investigated some processes in this chain.The operations for fabricating the semifinished product are based on creating and preserving the accumulative structures in the system whose energy will be used in the next stage of sintering the material. In other words, formation of the structure of a ceramic material during sintering begins from the structure of the semifinished product [1].Most ceramic materials are molded from pastes made from aqueous-clay compositions of different moisture content, including suspensions (slips) which are widely used for ceramic casting technology. The rheological properties and aggregate stability of the slips determine their process properties and physicomechanical indexes of the finished items. Using different fluidizing additives whose effect is based on ion-exchange processes on the surface of the mineral particles in the slip is an effective method of regulating these properties. The system changes from freely disperse to structured at a certain ratio of disperse phase and dispersion medium in the suspensions [3,4].We know [3] that the laminar structures of clay minerals, primarily kaolinite and montmorillonite, are composed of parallel layers of silicon-oxygen tetrahedrons with aluminum, magnesium, and iron atoms basically positioned in the center. The differences in the structure of these minerals are due to the density of the crystal lattice and the distance between regularly repeating groups of ions (planes), equal to 0.72 nm for kaolinite and on average 1.5 (0.95 -1.9 nm) for montmorillonite [5]. The greatest differences in the activity of the...