Selective electrosynthesis of chlorine disinfectants from seawater

Shengxi Zhao, Hao Li (), Jie Dai, Yaqian Jiang, Guangming Zhan, Minzi Liao, Hongwei Sun (), Yanbiao Shi, Cancan Ling, Yancai Yao and Lizhi Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Shengxi Zhao: Central China Normal University
Hao Li: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Jie Dai: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Yaqian Jiang: Central China Normal University
Guangming Zhan: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Minzi Liao: Central China Normal University
Hongwei Sun: Central China Normal University
Yanbiao Shi: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Cancan Ling: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Yancai Yao: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Lizhi Zhang: Central China Normal University

Nature Sustainability, 2024, vol. 7, issue 2, 148-157

Abstract: Abstract As one of the most widely used disinfectants, active chlorine is synthesized predominantly through electrolysis of saturated sodium chloride solutions, an industrial process known as the chlor-alkali process, with high energy consumption. Seawater is an abundant source of chloride and thus an ideal alternative electrolyte. However, substantial challenges are to be addressed, notably the competing oxygen evolution reaction and progressive anode passivation due to the presence of rich cations in seawater. Here, we show durable and efficient active chlorine electrosynthesis directly from natural seawater with intrinsic turnover frequency and mass activity two orders of magnitude higher than the state of the art. The essential chemistry is an Fe-doped Ti4O7 anode that strengthens the electrophilicity of lattice oxygen to allow for site-selective chloride activation at remarkably lowered kinetic overpotentials relative to the oxygen evolution reaction, while also impeding the precipitation of alkaline earth metal cations on the Ti4O7 surface. A seawater splitting device with an integrated commercial silicon photovoltaic cell delivers an impressive active chlorine production rate of 3.15 mg min−1 for effective simulated ballast water disinfection. This work suggests the possibility to substantially improve the sustainability of the chlor-alkali process without compromising the synthetic performance for the mass production of disinfectants.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01265-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:7:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01265-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01265-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().