Fast Seawater Desalination Integrated with Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Yuan Chen; Huiling Hu; Minxian Han; Huan Lin; Jinhong Dai; Kaixiang Shen; Minzhang Li; Xuncai Chen; Afzalshoh Qahramon Zarifzoda; Fangzhou Liu; Fuming Chen

doi:10.1002/anie.202415806

Fast Seawater Desalination Integrated with Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2024 Dec 3:e202415806. doi: 10.1002/anie.202415806. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemical Engineering J01, The University of Sydney, 2006, Sydney, AUSTRALIA.
² Hainan University, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, CHINA.
³ South China Normal University, School of Electronics and Information Engineering, CHINA.
⁴ Southern Medical University, Department of Forensic Toxicology, CHINA.
⁵ National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, S.U.Umarov Physical, TAJIKISTAN.
⁶ The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, AUSTRALIA.

PMID: 39627842
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202415806

Abstract

Coupling desalination with electrocatalytic reactions is an emerging approach to simultaneously addressing freshwater scarcity and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the salt removal rate in such processes is slow, and the applicable water sources are often limited to those with high salt concentrations. Herein, we show high-performance electrocatalytic desalination by coupling with electrochemical CO2 reduction using a carbon catalyst. A ZIF-8-derived carbon catalyst embedded with Cu nanoparticles delivers a high Faradaic efficiency of 94.3% for CO production at 288 μmol cm-2 h-1. The efficient CO2 electroreduction generates high current densities, which drive fast salt ion transfer across ion exchange membranes. The integrated device enables one of the quickest salt removal rates of 1043.49 μg cm-2 min-1 among various desalination methods. Drinking water can be obtained with an ion removal rate of 99% when natural seawater is used as the water source.

Keywords: Seawater desalination; carbon catalyst; electrocatalytic desalination; electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction.