Enhancing the capacitive deionization performance requires the inner structure expansion of porous activated carbon to facilitate the charge storage and electrolyte penetration. This work aimed to modify the porosity of coconut-shell activated carbon (AC) through CO2 activation at high temperature. The electrochemical performance of CO2- activated AC electrodes was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, charge/discharge test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, which exhibited that AC-800 had the superior performance with the highest capacitance of 112 F/g at the rate of 0.1 A/g and could operate for up to 4000 cycles. Furthermore, in the capacitive deionization, AC-800 showed salt removal of 9.15 mg/g with a high absorption rate of 2.8 mg/g min and Ni(II) removal of 5.32 mg/g with a rate close to 1 mg/g.min. The results promote the potential application of CO2- activated AC for desalination as well as Ni-removal through capacitance deionization (CDI) technology.

The objective of this study is the removal of chromium from tannery wastewater by electrosorption on carbon prepared from lignocellulosic natural residue "peach stones' thermally treated. The followed steps for obtaining coal in chronological order were: cleaning, drying, crushing and finally its carbonization at 900°C. The characterization of the carbon material resulted in properties comparable to those of many coals industrially manufactured. The study of the dynamic adsorption of chromium on the obtained material resulted in a low removal rate (33.7%) without applied potential. The application of negative potentials of -0.7 V and -1.4 increases the adsorption of chromium up to 90% and 96% respectively. Whereas a positive potential of +1.4V allows desorption of the contaminant of 138%.

The electrosorption of U(VI) from waste water was carried out by using an activated carbon fiber (ACF) felt electrode in a continuous electrosorption cell. In order to enhance the electrosorption capacity at a lower potential, the ACF was electrochemically modified in an acidic and a basic solution. Pore structure and functional groups of the electrochemically modified ACF were examined, and the effects of the modification conditions were studied for the adsorption of U(VI). Specific surface area of all the ACFs was decreased by this modification. The amount of the acidic functional groups decreased with a basic modification, while the amount increased a lot with an acidic modification. The electrosorption capacity of U(VI) decreased on the acid modified electrode due to the shielding effect of the acidic functional groups. The base modified electrode enhanced the capacity due to a reduction of the acidic functional groups. The electrosorption amount of U(VI) on the base modified electrode at .0.3 V corresponds to that of the as-received ACF electrode at .0.9 V. Such a good adsorption capacity was due to a reduction of the shielding effect and an increase of the hydroxyl ions in the electric double layer on the ACF surface by the application of negative potential.

A study on the electrosorption of uranium ions onto a porous activated carbon fiber (ACF) was performed to treat uraniumcontaining lagoon sludge. The result of the continuous flow-through cell electrosorption experiments showed that the applied negative potential increased the adsorption kinetics and capacity in comparison to the open-circuit potential (OCP) adsorption for uranium ions. Effective U(VI) removal is accomplished when a negative potential is applied to the activated carbon fiber (ACF) electrode. For a feed concentration of 100 mg/L, the concentration of U(VI) in the cell effluent is reduced to less than 1 mg/L. The selective removal of uranium ions from electrolyte was possible by the electrosorption process.

A study on the electrosorption of Co2+ and Sr2+ ions onto a porous activated carbon fiber (ACF) was performed to treat radioactive liquid wastes resulting from chemical or electrochemical decontamination and to regenerate the spent carbon electrode. The result of batch electrosorption experiments showed that applied negative potential increased adsorption kinetics and capacity in comparison with open-circuit potential (OCP) adsorption for Co2+ and Sr2+ ions. The adsorbed Co2+ and Sr2+ ions are released from the carbon fiber by applying a positive potential on the electrode, showing the reversibility of the sorption process. The possibility of application of the electrosorption technique to the separation of radionuclides was examined. The result of a selective removal experiments of a single component from a mixed solution showed that perfect separation of Co2+ and Sr2+ ions was possible by the electrosorption process.