Comparison of CDI and MCDI applied with sulfonated and aminated polysulfone polymers

Abstract

In this study, polysufone (PSf) was used as a base polymer to synthesize sulfonated polysulfone (SPSf) and aminated polysulfone (APSf) as cation and anion exchange polymers, respectively. Then the ion exchange polymers were coated onto the surface of commercial carbon electrodes. To compare the capacitive deionization (CDI) and membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) processes, the pristine carbon electrodes and ionic polymer coated electrodes were tested under various operating conditions such as feed flow rate, adsorption time at fixed desorption time, and feed concentration, etc., in terms of effluent concentration and salt removal efficiency. The MCDI was confirmed to be superior to the CDI process. The performance of MCDI was 2-3 times higher than that of CDI. In particular, the reverse desorption potential was a lot better than zero potential. Typically, the salt removal efficiency 100% for 100 mg/L NaCl was obtained for MCDI at feed flow rate of 15 ml/min and adsorption/ desorption time of 3 min/1 min and applied voltages 1.0 V for adsorption and -0.3 V for desorption process, and for 500 mg/L, the salt removal efficiency 91% was observed.