Tailorable Dual-Redox Polymer with Molecular Flexibility for Enhanced Electrochemical Desalination and Water Purification

The global water crisis demands sustainable desalination innovations, with capacitive deionization (CDI) emerging as an energy-efficient electrochemical alternative. While organic materials demonstrate pseudocapacitive ion capture through ion coordination for CDI electrodes, their effectiveness remains constrained by molecular chain packing and deficient redox-active sites. This work introduces a novel biocompatible dual-redox polymer (PNDBI) with high molecular flexibility to address these limitations. In-situ characterization and theoretical analyses unveil that the concerted interaction between C═O and C═N bifunctional groups enhances Na+ capture. Concurrently, the polymer’s pliable backbone and narrow…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Award: 52002157
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Awards: 2022M711686, 2023M741471