Acidified bamboo-derived activated carbon/manganese dioxide composite as a high-performance electrode material for capacitive deionization

Abstract

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an emerging desalination technology which employs high surface area porous electrode materials to eliminate ions from water by electrosorption. Herein, we propose an acidified bamboo-based activated carbon (BACa)/manganese dioxide (MnO2) composite synthesize by a simple co-precipitation technique. Bamboo-based activated carbon exhibit high electrical conductivity, hierarchical pore structure, and large specific surface area, due to which it is regarded as a promising candidate for seawater desalination. In this work after acidification, significant amounts of oxygen-containing functional groups are introduced onto the surface of the carbon, which enhanced the hydrophilicity of whole composite, while the MnO2 nanoparticles with sufficient ion migration channels provide a high adsorption capability and fast reaction kinetics. Consequently, the synthesized BACa/MnO2 composite achieves a tremendous specific capacitance of 158 F g-1 at 10 mV s-1, excellent electrosorption capacity of 10.3 mg g-1, and outstanding recyclability in the application of CDI, which is in comparison better than that of bare bamboo-based activated carbon electrode. The present study endorses the promising application of the low-cost high-performance BACa/MnO2 in capacitive deionization.