Glucose Derived Porous Carbon Coated Silicon Nanowires: platform for electrosorption desalination system capacitive deionization (CDI)

Fresh water is a finite resource. To avoid the complete depletion and reduction of this resource, new drinking water production techniques will have to be put in place to meet the needs of the growing population. Desalination is a promising technology which produces freshwater from sea or brackish water. The most widely used desalination processes are the reverse osmosis and distillation. But their high energy cost limits their use. The challenge of scientific research is therefore to develop innovative techniques to produce a sufficient quantity of fresh water, while having the lowest possible energy consumption. Thus, capacitive deionization (CDI), as an innovative desalination technology has demonstrated its practicality and cost-effectiveness in desalination and the treatment of brackish water. This technique uses porous electrodes which, when electrically charged, adsorb ionic particles present in the water. One of the keys to its efficiency is the material used for the manufacture of the electrodes. The recurring materials are generally carbonaceous materials. The development of a capacitive desalination cell requires an in-depth study of the different constituents that compose it. Thus, work has focused in recent years on the different carbonaceous materials used and the development of different cell architectures to better optimize the operation of the process. The carbonaceous materials used as electrodes represent the major part of the work carried out in this direction, mainly dedicated to their syntheses and characterizations. The most widely used material in capacitive desalination are carbons with a large specific surface area, such as activated carbons, carbon aerogels, carbidederived carbons (CDCs), carbon nanotubes and graphene. The differences in the structures of these carbons, due to their different methods of synthesis, can have an impact on the adsorption capacity of ions in the pores of the electrodes. In order to position IRC membranes and water security. on this theme, the general objective of this study is to set up a CDI desalination system in order to study the optimal salt elimination capacity using an electrochemical cell. This study should ultimately make it possible to improve the conditions for its operation. More specifically this work entails, a carbon coating of vertically aligned silicon nanowire (SiNWs) arrays via a simple hydrothermal process using glucose as carbon precursor. Using this process, a thin carbon layer is uniformly deposited on the SiNWs. Under optimized conditions, the coated SiNWs electrode material showed better electrochemical energy storage capacity as well as exceptional stability in aqueous system as compared to uncoated SiNWs. in addition of a better level of salts adsorption