Abstract
Abstract Because of the low energy requirement and the environmentally safe byproducts, the capacitive deionization water desalination technology has attracted the attention of many researchers. The important requirements for electrode materials are good electrical conductivity, high surface area, good chemical stability and high specific capacitance. In this study, metallic nanoparticles that are encapsulated in a graphite shell (Cd-doped Co/C NPs) are introduced as the new electrode material for the capacitive deionization process because they have higher specific capacitance than the pristine carbonaceous materials. Cd-doped Co/C NPs perform better than graphene and the activated carbon. The introduced nanoparticles were synthesized using a simple sol-gel technique. A typical sol-gel composed of cadmium acetate, cobalt acetate and poly(vinyl alcohol) was prepared based on the polycondensation property of the acetates. The physiochemical characterizations that were used confirmed that the drying, grinding and calcination in an Ar atmosphere of the prepared gel produced the Cd-doped Co nanoparticles, which were encapsulated in a thin graphite layer. Overall, the present study suggests a new method to effectively use the encapsulated bimetallic nanostructures in the capacitive deionization technology.
Highlights
A shortage of fresh water is one of the largest challenges in the world today
In the last four decades, the number and capacities of desalination units have dramatically increased such that multi-stage flash (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO) make up 45% and 42%, respectively, of world capacity [1]
Acetate salts were used, and Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was used as a polymeric matrix
Summary
A shortage of fresh water is one of the largest challenges in the world today. desalination technologies must be developed. A high-capacitive electrode should have a high surface area to accumulate ions, a good electrical conductivity to effectively hold charges, a suitable pore size and a good cross-linked structure for smooth ionic motions and electrolyte wetting [8,9] Carbon materials such as activated carbon (AC) and its composites [10,11], activated carbon cloth (ACC), carbon aerogel [12,13], carbon nanotubes (CNT) and its carbon nanofiber (CNF) composites [14], and ordered and mesoporous carbon (OMC) [8,15] have been studied as electrode materials for CDI. N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF 99.5% assay; SAMCHUN Pure Chemical Co., South Korea) was used as a solvent without modification
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