Up-shifting the desalination rate limit of capacitive deionization via integrating chloride-capturing Bi nanocluster with flow-through cell architecture

Faradic electrode-directed capacitive deionization (faradic-based CDI) as a green and eco-friendly technique is particularly promising in addressing the freshwater crisis, but its practical applications are plagued by the sluggish desalination kinetic. After deciphering its dynamic desalination process, two rate-determine steps (RDS) are identified, i.e., the ion diffusion inside the faradic electrode (RDS #1) and mass transfer process in the electrolyte (RDS #2). Therefore, we propose a synergetic strategy to upshift the desalination rate limit of faradic-based CDI through the integration of delicate material design with rational cell architecture. Specifically, deploying ultrasmall Bi nanoclusters impregnated carbon nanofibers (Bi NCs@CNF) as chloride-capturing electrodes and constructing a flow-through CDI (FT-CDI) system to accelerate the diffusion process (RDS #1) and shorten the mass transfer pathway (RDS #2), respectively. As expected, Bi NCs@CNF-based FT-CDI performs super-fast desalinization (0.56 mg g−1 s−1) and excellent cyclic stability. Taken together, our study opens an avenue in upshifting the desalination kinetics of faradic-based CDI based on the joint power of both “material design” and “cell architecture”, which may motivate the development of highly-efficient desalination systems.