Development of novel materials and systems for desalination and energy storage applications

Abstract

After the Industrial Revolution, rapid economic development secured the convenience of life and the abundance of materials, but faced a variety of energy and environmental problems due to indiscreet development and lack of awareness of the environment. Among them, water shortage caused by global warming and urbanization, air pollution, and global warming caused by fossil fuel use are pointed out as inevitable problems for sustainable development and survival of mankind. In order to solve the above problems, it is important to produce fresh water from brine, which is present in large quantities on the surface of the earth (~75%), through a low-energy desalination process, and to develop systems and materials for utilization of renewable energy with efficient energy storage. Therefore, it is necessary to develop novel materials and systems for effective desalination and energy storage through brine. Herein, in order to solve those problems, this thesis reports that 1) Development of a hybrid desalination system called Flow capacitive deionization (FCDI) - Nanofiltration (NF) with introducing of polyurethane (PU) sponge for high electrolytes uptake to improve the FCDI performance to solve the problem of high energy consumption and low water recovery of the conventional desalination process (reverse osmosis), 2) Development of asymmetric CDI system with Prussian blue analogue (PBA) to solve the reverse adsorption phenomenon of the porous carbon materials, which was the biggest problem of performance degradation of CDI, and utilizing the fast kinetics of the PBA through hydration intercalation and single-phase reaction to maximize the desalination performance, and 3) Development a binder that has a hydrophilic group and a hydrogen bond to enhance the wettability and lower the interfacial resistance of the electrode and improve the performance of the aqueous rechargeable battery and the desalination system.