Recent Progress of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as Electrodes for Capacitive Deionization (CDI) Desalination

The scarcity of freshwater resources and the increased demand for water have been the driver of the extensive utilization of desalination processes. While the cost and environmental impacts have been the main drivers to research and develop energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly desalination processes. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is considered one of the most promising desalination processes currently under development. The key component in CDI performance is the electrode material, with mostly porous carbon (PC) and other carbon-based materials as the commonly used electrodes. Metal-organic framework (MOF) has been evolved over the last couple of decades as highly ordered and tunable structures. This in turn has resulted in huge interest in synthesis MOF-derived PC as efficient electrodes for CDI application owing to the tunable surface area, pore-volume, and pore size, hydrophilicity, electrical conductivity, which can be optimized for CDI performance. This work aims to discuss the recent progress in the utilization of MOF-derived PC as electrodes for CDI.