Fabrication of zinc oxide nanorods modified activated carbon cloth electrode for desalination of brackish water using capacitive deionization approach

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising technique for removing dissolved ions from saline water. This method works on electrochemical control to remove ions from aqueous solution upon electrically charging the electrodes (anode and cathode). In this work, highly porous and conducting activated carbon cloth (ACC) material modified with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (ACC:ZnO) was used as base substrate in a flow through capacitor configuration. Simple and low temperature hydrothermal method was used to grow ZnO nanorods on ACC surface in an aqueous media. The desalination process was conducted using 100 ppm sodium chloride (NaCl) solution with the flow rate of 2 ml/min under an applied potential of 1.2 V. Enhancement of salt removal (desalination) and regeneration efficiency of 34% and 24% were achieved respectively.