Both low-energy consumption and high salt removal rate are highly required in the electrochemical desalination. In this work, a conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene), i.e., PEDOT, is electrochemically decorated on a graphite foil as an electrode material of redox-flow desalination (RFD). At a current density of 2 mA·cm^–2, the energy consumption of the RFD is reduced to 38.1 kJ·mol^–1 with PEDOT-modified electrodes, compared with 154.5 kJ·mol^–1 using a bare graphite electrode. Meanwhile, the salt removal rate is enhanced to 1.54 μmol·cm^–2·min^–1 using the PEDOT electrode from 1.11 μmol·cm^–2·min^–1 in the bare graphite electrode. The PEDOT electrodes can also provide excellent cycling stability. The improved performance may be due to the promising conductivity and porous structure of PEDOT, which would supply more active sites between the electrode and the redox electrolyte. The current research provides an electrochemical desalination strategy with low energy consumption and high salt removal rate, which is significant for the development of RFD technology.

中文翻译：

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用于连续氧化还原流脱盐的高效 PEDOT 电极架构

电化学脱盐对低能耗和高脱盐率的要求很高。在这项工作中，导电聚合物聚（3,4-乙烯-二氧噻吩），即 PEDOT，被电化学装饰在石墨箔上，作为氧化还原流动脱盐（RFD）的电极材料。在电流密度为 2 mA·cm ^{–2 时}，使用 PEDOT 修饰电极的 RFD 的能耗降低至 38.1 kJ·mol ^–1，而使用裸石墨电极的能耗为154.5 kJ·mol ^–1。同时，除盐率提高至1.54微摩尔·厘米^-2 ·分钟^-1使用PEDOT电极从1.11微摩尔·厘米^-2 ·分钟^-1在裸石墨电极中。PEDOT 电极还可以提供出色的循环稳定性。性能的提高可能是由于 PEDOT 具有良好的导电性和多孔结构，这将在电极和氧化还原电解质之间提供更多的活性位点。目前的研究提供了一种低能耗、高脱盐率的电化学脱盐策略，对RFD技术的发展具有重要意义。