Fig. 1: Schematic of electrochemical polarization of a hectorite–carbon black composite electrode, HCCE, and hectorite structure.
A Polarized aqueous HCCE composites lead to FeII/III oxidation as well as electrolyte oxidation and generation of reactive byproducts, resulting in ion removal from hectorite and collapse of the hectorite lattice structure. B Lattice structure of trioctahedral hectorite consisting of octahedrons, with Li, Mg, and Fe occupying octahedral coordination sites, sandwiched between sheets of SiO4 tetrahedrons with an interplanar spacing of 12.61 Å (a-axis and c-axis views shown). These layers repeat with sodium, potassium, and calcium occupying the space between. Interplanar ions are not shown; crystallographic information is available in Table S1.
