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Environmental problems - Chemical approaches
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Simultaneous capacitive deionisation and disinfection of saltwater by Ag@C/rGO electrodes

W.-T. Chang A , P.-A. Chen A , W.-R. Chen A , S.-H. Liu A and H. Paul Wang https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7272-8031 A *
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A Department of Environmental Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.

* Correspondence to: wanghp@ncku.edu.tw

Handling Editor: Jason Unrine

Environmental Chemistry 18(8) 352-359 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN21131
Submitted: 21 September 2021  Accepted: 11 January 2022   Published: 24 February 2022

© 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Environmental context. Deionisation of salt waters is of increasing importance and interest mainly due to the scarcity of fresh water. In a single through pass capacitive deionisation, a relatively high electrosorption efficiency (25%) was observed. Simultaneously, a high disinfection efficiency (97%) was also obtained. This study shows that the new Ag@C/rGO electrodes are feasible for simultaneous deionisation and disinfection of saltwater as a potential source of drinking water.

Abstract. Capacitive deionisation (CDI) of saltwater, with the advantages of low energy consumption and being environmentally friendly, has been considered a potential solution to the scarcity of fresh water from sea, contaminated or waste waters. In the present work, Ag@C core-shell nanoparticle dispersed rGO (Ag@C/rGO) electrodes were synthesised and used for the CDI of saltwater. To better understand the formation mechanism of the Ag@C core-shell nanoparticles, temperature-programmed carbonisation of the Ag+–β-cyclodextrin complexes was studied by in situ synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering spectroscopy. At 573 K, the core Ag metal forms Ag@C core-shell nanoparticles with the highest probability nanosizes of 40–80 nm. In the 4-cycle flow-by CDI (once through) experiments using the Ag@C/GO electrodes, high electrosorption efficiencies (25.0–44.9%) were obtained. Each CDI cycle involving electrosorption at 1.2 V and regeneration at 0 V for 1 h was highly reversible. In addition, the disinfection efficiency of the Ag@C/rGO electrodes, contributed by both silver and rGO, was very high (>97%). This study shows that the easily synthesised Ag@C/rGO core-shell carbon-based electrodes are feasible for simultaneous deionisation and disinfection of saltwater as a potential source of drinking water.

Keywords: Ag@C, Ag@C/rGO, capacitive deionisation, core shell, desalination, disinfection, graphene, SAXS.


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