Hybridization of carbon with metal compounds has gained substantial attention in the development of robust electrodes for capacitive deionization (CDI). A composite of activated carbon (AC) with titania (TiO₂) was concocted via Tween 80-assisted sol-gel process. The effects of Tween 80 on AC particles interaction with titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) and properties of the composite were systematically scrutinized by multiple analytical techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser diffraction (LD), contact angle (CA) measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen sorption isotherms and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Electrochemical characterization was conducted by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results show the essential role of Tween 80 for homogeneous bonding of titania and altering characteristics of AC-T80/TiO₂ composite. As such, the composite exhibited enhanced specific capacitance, and efficiency owing to the modulated benchmark properties (wettability, homogeneity, structure, and conductivity). Subsequently, the composite delivered the salt adsorption capacity (SAC) of 17.1 mg g⁻¹ (26% higher than surfactant-free composite) at 1.4 V, with outstanding capacity retention (87%) over 150 cycles in oxygen saturated saline water (10 mM). This work discloses a novel strategic approach for carbon-metal compound composites synthesis with fundamental aspects for CDI application.

碳与金属化合物的杂交在用于电容性去离子（CDI）的坚固电极的开发中已引起广泛关注。活性炭（AC）与二氧化钛（TiO ₂）的复合物通过吐温80辅助溶胶-凝胶工艺。通过多种分析技术，包括扫描电子显微镜（SEM），激光衍射（LD），接触角（CA）测量，X-射线衍射（XRD），氮吸附等温线和X射线光电子能谱（XPS）。电化学表征通过循环伏安法（CV），恒电流充放电（GCD）和电化学阻抗谱（EIS）进行。结果表明吐温80对二氧化钛的均匀键合和改变AC-T80 / TiO ₂特性的重要作用合成的。这样，由于调制基准性能（润湿性，均质性，结构和电导率），复合材料显示出增强的比电容和效率。随后，该复合材料在1.4 V电压下的盐吸附容量（SAC）为17.1 mg g ^-1（比不含表面活性剂的复合材料高26％），并在150个循环中在氧饱和盐水（10）中具有出色的容量保持率（87％）。毫米）。这项工作公开了一种具有CDI应用基础方面的碳-金属化合物复合材料合成的新战略方法。