Carbon Cloth Electrodes Remove Boron From Seawater

Engineers from the University of Michigan and Rice University have developed a new technology that uses carbon cloth electrodes to remove boron from seawater.

Boron is naturally found in seawater at levels twice than the limit the World Health Organization deems safe for drinking. To ensure the water we consume and use for agriculture is free of boron, desalination plants use chemical and energy-intensive methods.

Jovan Kamcev, a UM assistant professor and a co-corresponding author of the study, said their technology, which has been published in Nature Water, can make seawater desalination more efficient and cost-effective compared to the current methods used in desalination plants:

“Most reverse osmosis membranes don’t remove very much boron, so desalination plants typically have to do some post treatment to get rid of the boron, which can be expensive. We developed a new technology that’s fairly scalable and can remove boron in an energy-efficient way compared to some of the conventional technologies.”

The team used the new electrodes to trap boron inside pores with oxygen-containing structures. The purpose of the structures is to bind with boron alone and let other ions pass through.

To achieve this, the electrodes split the water to form negative hydroxide ions and positive hydrogen ions. Boron attaches to hydroxide, becoming negatively charged, which is needed for it to stick to the structures inside the pores in the positive electrode. Then, the hydroxide ions recombine with the hydrogen ions to create a neutral, boron-free water.

Menachem Elimelech, the Nancy and Clint Carlson Professor at Rice University and a co-corresponding author of the study, called their study a versatile platform:

“...the functional groups on the electrode can be adjusted to specifically bind with different contaminants, facilitating energy-efficient water treatment.”

When this technology is adopted, seawater will become a more accessible source of drinking water and desalination plants can save millions of dollars annually.

Read the full article here to learn more about the carbon cloth electrodes.

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