Intact mangrove root electrodes for desalination

Abstract

Biological adaptation in mangrove root enables freestanding carbonized architecture to be used as a highly permeable flow-through capacitive deionization electrode.

Toward sustainable desalination using food waste: capacitive desalination with bread-derived electrodes

“…The salt concentration of the solution exiting the FT-CDI cell was measured using a custom-built conductivity meter which is described in detail in Wood et al 2019. 29 The salt adsorbed was calculated by quantifying the area between the stock solution (1200 mg L −1 ) and the permeate solution during the charging phase of the CDI cycle. The SAC was calculated by dividing the salt adsorbed by the net mass of the electrodes.…”

“…The SAC is dened as the ratio of salt adsorbed from the feed stream to the mass of the electrode pair. 47 Values for SAC typically range from 2 mg g À1 to as high as 21 mg g À1 for FT electrodes and naturallybased electrodes, 29 although other studies have also reported lower values. 14 L is the ratio of salt adsorption to charge transferred and is indicative of energy consumption.…”

“…25,27,28 We recently showed that an intact natural material, mangrove roots, could be carbonized and used as a FT-CDI electrode. 29 Although our results were exciting, the global supply of mangroves and their importance in natural habitats limits their applicability. We have therefore been searching for an ideal source material that is widely available and comprised of a porous architecture so that it could be used as a freestanding FT-CDI electrode.…”