Comparison of Six Different Printed Ag Inks for Coulometric Removal of Chloride Ions from Seawater: Towards an Integrated Microfluidic Platform for Desalination

摘要

This paper reports on the electrochemical characterization and comparison of printable silver (Ag) inks for the fabrication of planar Ag electrodes to integrate in a microfluidic platform for seawater desalination. Screen printing and inkjet printing were investigated to overcome limitations of more conventional deposition techniques. The screen printed ink Dupont PE825 was chosen for the fabrication of the desalination platform as it displayed the best properties in terms of adhesion to glass and oxidation ability (12.3 mC/mm~2). The platform was microfabricated to miniaturize the components and exploit scaling to improve the device electrochemical performance. The device was tested at different oxidation potentials and for different periods of time: the highest charge (3.95 C) was registered when a potential of +0.9 V was applied for an oxidation time of 180 s, operating conditions which also allowed the complete regeneration of the Ag electrode.