Electrode dip to freshen up saltwater

Published in Chemistry World, 10 Jun 2012

Producing freshwater from brackish water could be cheaper and easier than previously thought, according to researchers who have developed a new technique for desalination. The process, which is a refinement of a well-known method called capacitive deionisation, could treat large volumes of water in a continuous ‘merry-go-round’ of carbon electrodes.

Likun Pan, a physicist at the East China Normal University in Shanghai who was not involved with the research, calls the technique a ‘radical departure’ for capacitive deionisation, the working principle of which dates back to the 1960s. ‘This [study] will be followed up by many groups in the world, I am sure, as it is so simple to do it in this way,’ he says. […]

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