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Nano Research 2016, 9(8): 2458-2466 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1132-8
Research Article | Issue | Published: 04 July 2016

Holey graphene hydrogel with in-plane pores for high-performance capacitive desalination

Show Author's Information Weiqing Kong1,  Xidong Duan1,  Yongjie Ge1,  Hongtao Liu2,  Jiawen Hu1( ),  Xiangfeng Duan1,3( )
State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics Department of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringHunan UniversityChangsha410082China
College of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringCentral South UniversityChangsha410083China
Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
Keywords:
desalination, capacitive deionization, electrochemical capacitor, graphene hydrogel (GH), in-plane pore
Cite this article:
Kong W, Duan X, Ge Y, et al. Holey graphene hydrogel with in-plane pores for high-performance capacitive desalination. Nano Research, 2016, 9(8): 2458-2466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1132-8
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Capacitive deionization is an attractive approach to water desalination and treatment. To achieve efficient capacitative desalination, rationally designed electrodes with high specific capacitances, conductivities, and stabilities are necessary. Here we report the construction of a three-dimensional (3D) holey graphene hydrogel (HGH). This material contains abundant in-plane pores, offering efficient ion transport pathways. Furthermore, it forms a highly interconnected network of graphene sheets, providing efficient electron transport pathways, and its 3D hierarchical porous structure can provide a large specific surface area for the adsorption and storage of ions. Consequently, HGH serves as a binder-free electrode material with excellent electrical conductivity. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements indicate that the optimized HGH can achieve specific capacitances of 358.4 F·g-1 in 6 M KOH solution and 148 F·g-1 in 0.5 M NaCl solution. Because of these high capacitances, HGH has a desalination capacity as high as 26.8 mg·g-1 (applied potential: 1.2 V; initial NaCl concentration: ~5, 000 mg·L-1).


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About this article

Holey graphene hydrogel with in-plane pores for high-performance capacitive desalination

Show Author's information Weiqing Kong1, Xidong Duan1, Yongjie Ge1, Hongtao Liu2, Jiawen Hu1( ), Xiangfeng Duan1,3( )
State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics Department of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringHunan UniversityChangsha410082China
College of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringCentral South UniversityChangsha410083China
Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA

Abstract

Capacitive deionization is an attractive approach to water desalination and treatment. To achieve efficient capacitative desalination, rationally designed electrodes with high specific capacitances, conductivities, and stabilities are necessary. Here we report the construction of a three-dimensional (3D) holey graphene hydrogel (HGH). This material contains abundant in-plane pores, offering efficient ion transport pathways. Furthermore, it forms a highly interconnected network of graphene sheets, providing efficient electron transport pathways, and its 3D hierarchical porous structure can provide a large specific surface area for the adsorption and storage of ions. Consequently, HGH serves as a binder-free electrode material with excellent electrical conductivity. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements indicate that the optimized HGH can achieve specific capacitances of 358.4 F·g-1 in 6 M KOH solution and 148 F·g-1 in 0.5 M NaCl solution. Because of these high capacitances, HGH has a desalination capacity as high as 26.8 mg·g-1 (applied potential: 1.2 V; initial NaCl concentration: ~5, 000 mg·L-1).

Keywords: desalination, capacitive deionization, electrochemical capacitor, graphene hydrogel (GH), in-plane pore

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 18 February 2016
Revised: 26 April 2016
Accepted: 04 May 2016
Published: 04 July 2016
Issue date: August 2016

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer‐Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was finally supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61528403).

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