Development of activated carbon from lignin as electrode for capacitive deionization of multicomponent solutions

• Grant number: 16/24684-4
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries
• Principal researcher: Luis Augusto Martins Ruotolo
• Grantee: Rafael Linzmeyer Zornitta
• Supervisor abroad: Volker Presser
• Home Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/26593-3 - Desalination using capacitive deionization: development of new electrodes and process optimization, BP.DR

Abstract

Water scarcity has become a serious problem in the last few years. In spite of the large amount of water still available in the planet, great part of this water presents high concentration of salts and, consequently, not drinkable. In this context, the capacitive deionization (CDI) emerged as a low-cost technology that can be used for desalination of brackish water. Nevertheless, there are still some challenges to overcome to make this technology feasible, such as the preparation of a low-cost electrode with high electrosorption capacity, fast sorption/desorption kinetics, and low specific energy consumption. In this one-year sandwich Ph.D. it is proposed the study and development of activated carbons from lignin (LAC) to be used for CDI purposes. As far as we know, this would be the first time that LAC would be used as electrode for CDI. Lignin was chosen because it is a waste available in large amounts and could be used as a precursor to obtain activated carbons with high specific surface area (SSA) and high mesopore volume. In this fashion, in this project it is intended to use the expertise of Prof. Presser to develop a customized activated carbon with specific properties for CDI. In the second step of this project, the LAC electrode will be employed to desalinate a multicomponent solution. The understanding of the multicomponent electrosorption is very important to desalinate real brackish water, as proposed in the Ph.D. project. Moreover, it is worth to mention the importance of carrying out this study in the Prof. Presser's group since, as far as we know, is the only CDI group using an ICP-OES coupled to a CDI cell that allow the simultaneous measurement of the different cation concentrations in a multicomponent solution. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LEE, JUHAN; SRIMUK, PATTARACHAI; ZORNITTA, RAFAEL L.; ASLAN, MESUT; MEHDI, B. LAYLA; PRESSER, VOLKER. High Electrochemical Seawater Desalination Performance Enabled by an Iodide Redox Electrolyte Paired with a Sodium Superionic Conductor. ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, v. 7, n. 11, p. 10132-10142, JUN 3 2019. Web of Science Citations: 1.

LEE, JUHAN; SRIMUK, PATTARACHAI; ZWINGELSTEIN, ROSE; ZORNITTA, RAFAEL LINZMEYER; CHOI, JAEHOON; KIM, CHOONSOO; PRESSER, VOLKER. Sodium ion removal by hydrated vanadyl phosphate for electrochemical water desalination supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c8ta10087j. JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A, v. 7, n. 8, p. 4175-4184, FEB 28 2019. Web of Science Citations: 6.

LEE, JUHAN; SRIMUK, PATTARACHAI; CARPIER, SIDONIE; CHOI, JAEHOON; ZORNITTA, RAFAEL LINZMEYER; KIM, CHOONSOO; ASLAN, MESUT; PRESSER, VOLKER. Confined Redox Reactions of Iodide in Carbon Nanopores for Fast and Energy-Efficient Desalination of Brackish Water and Seawater. CHEMSUSCHEM, v. 11, n. 19, p. 3460-3472, OCT 11 2018. Web of Science Citations: 9.

ZORNITTA, RAFAEL LINZMEYER; SRIMUK, PATTARACHAI; LEE, JUHAN; KRUENER, BENJAMIN; ASLAN, MESUT; MARTINS RUOTOLO, LUIS AUGUSTO; PRESSER, VOLKER. Charge and Potential Balancing for Optimized Capacitive Deionization Using Lignin-Derived, Low-Cost Activated Carbon Electrodes. CHEMSUSCHEM, v. 11, n. 13, p. 2101-2113, JUL 11 2018. Web of Science Citations: 20.