Organic-inorganic hybrid binder enhances capacitive deionization performance of activated-carbon electrode

A robust activated carbon (AC) electrode is a prerequisite for high performance capacitive deionization (CDI). Herein, an organic-inorganic hybrid binder has been explored to fabricate robust AC electrode for CDI application. We demonstrate that the inorganic-organic binder can not only improve the interface adhesion and reduce the inner resistance, but also optimize the pore structure, thus accelerating the ion transport and enhancing capacitive ion storage. Importantly, the AC electrode possesses significantly mechanical strength, allowing the production of a large sized disk-like electrode (an area of 177 cm−2). Moreover, the flexibility of AC electrode facilitates the design and construction of a compact parallel cylinder CDI unit. CDI test results show that as prepared AC electrode displays a high electrosorption capacity of 14.6 mg/g and a fast regeneration rate of 30 min in a 2000 μS/cm NaCl solution. Also, the CDI unit based on the newly developed AC electrode can be operated continuously with a desalination ability of 10 L/h for three months without obvious performance decline. Therefore, this work provides a simple and efficient route to prepare a robust AC electrode with high CDI performance, which potentially can be applied for large-scale production for industrial water purifying.

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