Processing of Carbon Nanofibers with Graphene Oxide and Carbon Nanotubes Additives and its Application in CDI Electrode Material

Abstract

Water shortage has been a severe problem affecting the globe for the past decade. Therefore, appropriate and efficient technologies should be implemented to tackle the water shortage dilemma and to acquire clean water. Several desalination techniques are implemented across the world; among them is capacitive deionization (CDI). CDI is an energy-efficient and cost-effective electrochemical process employed for extracting charged ions from aqueous solutions using a pair of electrodes. Electrode materials strongly influence the CDI's desalination efficiency and conductivity. The CDI electrodes are composed of carbon materials such as activated carbon, carbon aerogel, carbon nanofibers, and porous carbon. However, in this study, carbon nanofibers that possess several advantages and properties over the existing materials have been examined to be used as CDI electrode material due to their high electrical conductivity, large surface area, dimensional stability, and low production cost. Furthermore, different conductive additives could be added to the carbon nanofibers to increase the electrical conductivity and capacitance. In particular, this paper discusses the effect of adding graphene oxide (GO) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) as additives to carbon nanofibers.