Ionophobicity of carbon sub-nanometer pores enables efficient desalination at high salinity

Electrochemical seawater desalination has drawn significant attention as an energy-efficient technique to address the global issue of water remediation. Microporous carbons, that is, carbons with pore sizes smaller than 2 nm, are commonly used for capacitive deionization. However, micropores ineffective deionization at high molar strength because their inability permselectively uptake ions. In our work, we combine experimental work molecular dynamics simulation and reveal ability sub-nanometer pores (ultramicropores) effectively desalinate aqueous media seawater-like strength. This is done without any ion-exchange membrane. The capacity in 600 mM reaches 12 mg/g, a charge efficiency 94% cycling stability over 200 cycles (97% retention). Using dynamic simulations providing data, makes it possible both understand calculate function size.