I'm no chemist T .. but they do say this ..
But the addition of a Lewis acid layer on the catalyst, it seems, was able to capture enough negatively charged hydroxyl anions from the seawater to generate a powerfully alkaline environment with a pH of 14 around the catalyst, stopping both chloride attacks on the catalyst and the formation of precipitates on the electrodes.
Desalination of sea-water by electrolysis happens at large scale already IINM re : Desert Arab countries with oodles of cash for electricity.
AFAIK the resulting brackish water is regularly replaced but the electrodes don't need regular maintenance of replacement.
Might work well in swamps and wet-lands LOL.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/en ... ionization
4.1.4 Capacitive deionization (CDI)
CDI, including membrane CDI (MCDI), is an emerging technology for seawater and brackish desalinations [42]. CDI is a different type of desalination processes that remove ions from the saline water stream at atmospheric pressure using direct current (DC) power. Electrodes become positively and negatively charged when DC power applies to CDI electrodes. During CDI operation, ions in saline water are adsorbed on the cathode and anode. After that, ions are desorbed from the electrodes by discharging of CDI. CDI is operated by the charging and discharging processes to produce freshwater [42].
Even though CDI has some benefits such as energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and high rejection ratio, the commercialization of CDI is limited due to lack of suitable materials for electrodes.
17.4.12 Capacitive deionization
Capacitive deionization (CDI), also called electrosorption, operates by applying a low voltage to mobilize charged species from water to electrodes (Fig. 17.20). No electrolysis reaction occurs at the electrodes because of the use of a low voltage (Biesheuvel, 2009). Upon exhaustion of the electrosorption capacity, the electrodes are regenerated by being shortened or by reversing the polarity of the applied cell potential (Lee et al., 2006).
** IINM halogens like Chlorine and Bromine are photodegraded by UV light all the time in nature. Just consult my pool chemical cost.
