Biochar Made into Efficient Electrodes for Capacitive Deionization

The scarcity of freshwater has attracted the attention of countries around the world. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a burgeoning ElectroSorb Technology with low price and high efficiency. It is important for CDI to prepare electrodes with inexpensive and high adsorption capacity. The deionization efficiency depends on the properties of the CDI electrodes. In this paper, porous carbon materials derived from corncobs, cornstalks, and waste cigarette butts have been used as efficient electrodes for CDI desalination. Compared with cornstalks and waste cigarette butts, the results showed that corncobs activated at 800 °C (CBC-800) had the best properties. The specific surface area (SSA) and capacitance (Ccv) of the CBC-800 are 1201.9 m2/g and 141.4 F/g, respectively. And the adsorption capacity (SAC) is 19.2 mg/g. CBC-800 is a prospective biomass material for CDI technology.