High Electrosorption Capacity Electrodes for Capacitive Deionization
Kelsey B. Hatzell1, Etsuro Iwama2, Barbara Daffos2, Pierre-Louis Taberna2, Theo Tzedakis2, Alexei Gogotsi3 , Patrice Simon2, Yury Gogotsi1
1 A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, Materials Science and Engineering Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
2 Université Paul Sabatier, CIRIMAT UMR CNRS 5085, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France
3 Materials Research Centre, 03680 Kiev, Ukraine
Abstract
In water stressed regions across the globe, the rate of abstraction from deep aquifers often exceeds the rate of recharge. This leads to water shortages that are sometimes irreversible. In order to address these water shortages, researchers are looking to the most abundant of source water present on earth, seawater. However, to transform seawater into clean drinking water requires a range of energy intensive processes. Such processes include Reverse Osmosis, UV disinfection and Thermal Distillation. The most promising of these technologies is Reverse Osmosis, which can achieve 1.8 kWh/m3 in current commercial plants [1]. Nevertheless, this technology is fundamentally hindered by membrane fouling and slow water transport [2]. Thus, there has been a movement toward technologies that do not use membranes, and toward technologies that remove the minority component (salt) rather than the majority component (water) [3].
Capacitive Deionization (CDI) is the process of removing ions from brackish/seawater by applying a potential between two electrodes, adsorbing ion on the surface, and producing clean water. Carbon materials are favorable as electrode materials in CDI systems because they exhibit high electric conductivity (~100 S m-1), specific surface area (up to 2000 m2 g-1), and high electrochemical stability. Herein, we report the use of spherical activated carbon beads (BET SSA 1219 m2 g-1) as the active material for electrodes for a capacitive deionization system. In a 0.15 M solution of NaCl at 10 mV s-1 the electrodes demonstrate a capacitance of 58 F/g which is on par with recently reported electrode capacitances. These results indicate that with further optimization, the spherical geometry of the particles may yield enhanced electrosorption capacity for CDI.
References:
1. Elimelech, M.; Phillip, W.A. The Future of seawater desalination: Energy, technology, and the environment. Science 2011, 333-712-717.
2. Wang, Evelyn and Karnik, Rohit. Graphene Cleans up water. Nature Nanotechnology, 2012.
3. Porada, S., Weinstein, L., Dash, R., Van Der Wal, A., Bryjak, M., Gogotsi, Y., & Biesheuvel, P. M. Water desalination using capacitive deionization with microporous carbon electrodes. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 4(3), 1194-1199, 2012.
The 224th ECS Meeting in San Francisco, California | October 27 – November 1, 2013
The 224th Electrochemical Society ECS Meeting was held in the heart of San Francisco, at the meeting headquarters hotel, the Hilton San Francisco (333 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA 94102). ECS bridges the gaps among academia, research, and engineering—bringing together scientists from around the world for the exchange of technical information...
Congratulations and thank you to our collaborators from TU Wien and CEST for very interesting work and making it published! In this work, an upscalable electrochemical MXene synthesis is presented. Yields of up to 60% electrochemical MXene (EC-MXene) with no byproducts from a single exfoliation cycle are achieved.
Thank you to our collaborators for the amazing joint work recently published in Graphene and 2D Nanomaterials about MXene–silk fibroin composite films aiming to develop materials with tunable electronic and thermal properties
Congratulations to all collaborators with this interesting joint work!
Dr. Oleksiy Gogotsi, director of MRC and Carbon-Ukraine, innovative companies that are among the leaders on the world MXene market, visited 2024 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit. together with Dr. Maksym Pogorielov, Head of Advanced Biomaterials and Biophysics Laboratory, University of Latvia.
MRC and Carbon-Ukraine team visited the 3rd International MXene conference held at Drexel University on August 5-8, 2024. Conference brought together the best reserchers and leading experts on MXene field. 
Together with colleagues from the University of Latvia, MRC/Carbone Ukraine, Adam Mickiewicz University, University Clinic Essen, and others, we have developed a novel concept involving the binding of antibodies to MXenes. In our research, we utilized anti-CEACAM1 antibodies to develop targeted photo-thermal therapy for melanoma (in vitro), paving the way for future in vivo studies and clinical trials. For the first time, we demonstrate the feasibility of delivering MXenes specifically targeted to melanoma cells, enabling the effective ablation of cancer cells under near-infrared (NIR) light. This new technique opens up vast potential for the application of MXenes in cancer treatment, diagnostics, drug delivery, and many other medical purposes.
Here we demonstrate a new developed method for depositing Ti3C2Tx MXenes onto hydrophobic electrospun PCL membranes using oxygen plasma treatment. These novel patches hold tremendous potential for providing mechanical support to damaged heart tissue and enabling electrical signal transmission,thereby mimicking the crucial electroconductivity required for normal cardiac function. After a detailed investigation of scaffold-to-cell interplay, including electrical stimulation, novel technology has the potential for clinical application not only for cardiac regeneration, but also as neural and muscular tissue substitutes.
MX-MAP project participants from MRC Dr. Oleksiy Gogotsi and Veronika Zahorodna performed split secondment visit to project partner organization University of Padova (Italy). MX-MAP project works on development of the key strategies for MXene medical applications. 
CanbioSe Project Meeting and Project Workshop was held at European Institute of Membranes (IEM), University of Montpellier, France on September 26-27, 2023. The workshop was focused on the theme of "Commercializing Biosensors, Intellectual Property, and Knowledge Transfer from Academia to Industry.
Dr. Oleksiy Gogotsi and Veronika Zahorodna visited IEEE NAP 2023 conference held in Bratislava on September 10-15, 2023. The prime focus of the IEEE NAP-2023 was on nanoscale materials with emphasis on interdisciplinary research exploring and exploiting their unique physical and chemical proprieties for practical applications.
Director of MRC and Carbon-Ukraine Dr. Oleksiy Gogotsi visited CEST labs in Wiener Neustadt (Low Energy Ion Scattering, Batteries development) and TU Vienna (ELSA, SFA). He meet with Dr. Pierluigi Bilotto, Dr. Chriatian Pichler and their colleagues, discussing novel materials and r&d activities for new technologies.