Continuous operation of membrane capacitive deionization cells assembled with dissimilar potential of zero charge electrode pairs

By Ayokunle Omosebi and Xin Gao and Jeffery Rentschler and James Landon and Kunlei Liu
Published in Journal of Colloid and Interface Science NULL 2015

Abstract

The performance of single stack membrane assisted capacitive deionization cells configured with pristine and nitric acid oxidized Zorflex (ZX) electrode pairs was evaluated. The potentials of zero charge for the pristine and oxidized electrodes were respectively ?0.2 V and 0.2 V vs. SCE. Four cell combinations of the electrodes including a pristine anode-pristine cathode, oxidized anode-pristine cathode, pristine anode-oxidized cathode, and oxidized anode-oxidized cathode were investigated. When the \PZC\ was located within the polarization window of the electrode, diminished performance was observed. The cells were operated at 1.2 V and based on potential distribution results, the effective working potentials were ?0.9, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.1 V for the pristine anode-pristine cathode, oxidized anode-pristine cathode, pristine anode-oxidized cathode, and oxidized anode-oxidized cathode cells, respectively. The highest electrosorption capacity of 17 mg NaCl/g \ZX\ was observed for the pristine anode-oxidized cathode cell, where both \PZCs\ were outside of the polarization window.

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