High performance stability of titania decorated carbon for desalination with capacitive deionization in oxygenated water

Abstract

Performance stability in capacitive deionization (CDI) is particularly challenging in systems with a high amount of dissolved oxygen due to rapid oxidation of the carbon anode and peroxide formation. For example, carbon electrodes show a fast performance decay, leading to just 15% of the initial performance after 50 CDI cycles in oxygenated saline solution (5 mM NaCl). We present a novel strategy to overcome this severe limitation by employing nanocarbon particles hybridized with sol–gel-derived titania. In our proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate very stable performance in low molar saline electrolyte (5 mM NaCl) with saturated oxygen for the carbon/metal oxide hybrid (90% of the initial salt adsorption capacity after 100 cycles). The electrochemical analysis using a rotating disk electrode (RDE) confirms the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic effect of FW200/TiO2, preventing local peroxide formation by locally modifying the oxygen reduction reaction.

Description
Keywords
Desalination, Electrochemical electrodes, Electrolytes, Electrolytic reduction, Oxidation, Peroxides, Rotating disks, Sodium chloride, Sol-gels, Titanium dioxide, Adsorption capacities, Capacitive deionization, Electrochemical analysis, Nano-carbon particles, Oxygen reduction reaction, Performance stability, Peroxide formations, Rotating disk electrodes, Dissolved oxygen
Citation
Srimuk, P., Ries, L., Zeiger, M., Fleischmann, S., Jäckel, N., Tolosa, A., et al. (2016). High performance stability of titania decorated carbon for desalination with capacitive deionization in oxygenated water. 6(108). https://doi.org//10.1039/C6RA22800C
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License
CC BY 3.0 Unported