Abstract Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising desalination technology employing activated carbon as an electrode material. Although there have been many works concerning carbon preparation, much less attention has been paid to electrode development. Here, we report a comprehensive and systematic study of electrode preparation by blade-casting (DB) and free-standing (FS) techniques. The thickness, interparticle porosity, and hydrophilicity of the electrodes obtained by the different techniques affected their textural and electric properties, consequently influencing their CDI performance. Although there was no significant difference in the gravimetric salt adsorption capacity values (SACM between 14.7 and 16.9 mg g−1), the volumetric salt adsorption capacities indicated superior performance of the FS electrode. However, when the SAC was considered together with the electrosorption and desorption kinetics, the DB electrode outperformed the FS electrode, mainly due to the fast kinetics ascribed to the improved mass transfer provided by the large interparticle voids of the DB carbon films. The results demonstrated that the faster kinetics provided by enhanced diffusion in thin electrodes with high interparticle porosity may be decisive for selection of the best electrode in CDI applications.

中文翻译：

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深入了解颗粒间孔隙率和电极厚度对海水淡化电容去离子性能的影响

摘要 电容去离子（CDI）是一种以活性炭为电极材料的有前途的海水淡化技术。虽然已经有很多关于碳制备的工作，但对电极开发的关注却很少。在这里，我们报告了通过刀片铸造 (DB) 和独立 (FS) 技术制备电极的全面系统研究。通过不同技术获得的电极的厚度、颗粒间孔隙率和亲水性影响了它们的质地和电性能，从而影响了它们的 CDI 性能。尽管重量盐吸附容量值（SACM 在 14.7 和 16.9 mg g-1 之间）没有显着差异，但体积盐吸附容量表明 FS 电极具有优越的性能。然而，当 SAC 与电吸附和解吸动力学一起考虑时，DB 电极的性能优于 FS 电极，这主要是由于 DB 碳膜的大颗粒间空隙提供了改进的传质带来的快速动力学。结果表明，在具有高颗粒间孔隙率的薄电极中增强扩散所提供的更快动力学可能是在 CDI 应用中选择最佳电极的决定性因素。