Abstract
Capacitive deionization is an emerging brackish water desalination technology whose principle lies in the utilization of porous electrodes (activated carbon materials) to temporarily store ions. Improving the properties of carbon material used as electrodes have been the focus of recent research, as this is beneficial for overall efficiency of this technology. Herein, we have synthesized a composite of activated carbon/graphene oxide electrodes by using a simple blending process in order to improve the hydrophilic property of activated carbon. Graphene oxide (GO) of different weight ratios was blended with commercial Activated carbon (AC) and out of all the composites, AC/GO-15 (15 wt.% of GO) exhibited the best electrochemical and salt adsorption performance in all operating conditions. The as prepared AC and AC/GO-x (x = 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% of GO) were characterized by cyclic voltammetry and their physical properties were also studied. The salt adsorption capacity (SAC) of AC/GO-15 at an operating window of 1.0 V is 5.70 mg/g with an average salt adsorption rate (ASAR) of 0.34 mg/g/min at a 400 mg/L salt initial concentration and has a capacitance of 75 F/g in comparison to AC with 3.74 mg/g of SAC, ASAR of 0.23 mg/g/min and a capacitance of 56 F/g at the same condition. This approach could pave a new way to produce a highly hydrophilic carbon based electrode material in CDI.
Highlights
Obtaining alternative sources of fresh water has been one of the foremost challenges in this era of constant increases in population
The basic principle of Capacitive Deionization (CDI) lies in the storage of ions when an external direct voltage is applied to a system containing a brine solution; the electrically induced charged ions in the solution are adsorbed into the surface of the polarized electrodes [4] and as soon as the Materials 2020, 13, 5185; doi:10.3390/ma13225185
SEM was performed to visualize the morphology of the commercial Activated carbon (AC) and to verify if the addition of graphene oxide (GO) at different ratios would have a significant effect on the morphology of AC
Summary
Obtaining alternative sources of fresh water has been one of the foremost challenges in this era of constant increases in population. Human developments such as the process of industrialization have led to an upsurge in climatic changes and as a result, the hydrological cycle has been affected. Water shortages have blighted many regions of the world [1] (causing adverse physical and economic impacts) and there is an urgent necessity to circumvent this issue by developing a technology that can augment the existing water desalination technologies by exploiting surface water with a low salt concentration (brackish water). The basic principle of CDI lies in the storage of ions (adsorption) when an external direct voltage (usually below 2.0 V) is applied to a system containing a brine solution; the electrically induced charged ions in the solution are adsorbed into the surface of the polarized electrodes (electrical double layer interface) [4] and as soon as the Materials 2020, 13, 5185; doi:10.3390/ma13225185 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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