Session: 14-01 Conference Poster Presentation

Paper Number: 115164

115164 - Porous Biomass Converted Carbon Electrode Design and Application in Capacitive Deionization 

The design and synthesis of high-performance and economical carbon electrode play a critical role in developing energy-efficient water desalination technologies. As a sustainable approach, the low-cost and abundant biomass materials are promising candidates to prepare porous carbon for capacitive deionization. Because of natural porous structure, wood is chosen as the biomass carbon precursor and to study the water desalination performance: Binder-free wood converted carbon sheets were successfully converted from several species of natural wood, and further chemical activation was processed to enlarge the porous structure. The morphology shows that after carbonization, the porous structure from natural wood was retained in wood converted carbon, while the surface area of activated carbon is enlarged due to the reaction between activating agent and carbon at high temperature. The salt adsorption occurs when a pair of wood converted carbon electrodes placed parallel with each other into a 3D printed CDI cell, with NaCl solution flow through and a voltage charge given to the electrode. The formation of electron double layer on the surface of carbon electrode attracts the ions from the NaCl water. We have found when using balsa as carbon precursor, the potassium hydroxide activated wood converted carbon owns the highest water desalination performance, which is the best result so far compared to others’ research as far as we know.

Presenting Author: Rui He George Mason University

Presenting Author Biography: Rui He is a PhD student from George Mason University, Mechanical Engineering department. His research focus on porous carbon preparation and modification for electrochemical water desalination by capacitive deionization and functional polymer materials.