Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>To alleviate freshwater shortage and water pollution in power plant circulating water treatment, flow-electrode capacitive deionization serves as a promising desalination technique. Activated carbon applied alone displays unsatisfactory conductivity in electrode slurries, hence acetylene black is introduced to construct conductive pathways. Nevertheless, intrinsic strong hydrophobicity makes acetylene black prone to severe agglomeration and undermines the optimized conductive networks. In this work, liquid-phase oxidation using 30% hydrogen peroxide is performed to graft oxygen-containing functional groups onto acetylene black, and the modified filler is blended with activated carbon to prepare flow electrodes targeting saline power plant circulating water. Characterizations reveal that the water contact angle of acetylene black decreases from 137.8°to 64.3°, bringing remarkable hydrophilic improvement alongside tuned pore structure and reduced charge transfer resistance, while the underlying conductive skeleton remains intact. Desalination tests under optimal parameters indicate that flow electrodes containing 10% modified acetylene black reach a salt removal efficiency of 40.29%, 48% higher than electrodes made of pure activated carbon, with decreased energy consumption. Hydrogen peroxide modification mitigates particle agglomeration, thereby improving both the desalination performance and energy utilization efficiency of the electrode system for circulating water desalination in power plants.</p>