Salty water desalination using carbon nanotube sheets

Desalination using carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets was performed. Carbon nanotube sheets were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition using cyclohexanol and ferrocene in nitrogen atmosphere at 750 C, and oxidized with concentrated nitric acid at room temperature and then employed as adsorbent for salty water desalination (sodium chloride removal from water). Effects of adsorption time and initial salt concentration on performance of the oxidized CNT sheets were investigated. It was found out that both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models match the experimental data very well. The results demonstrated that the oxidized CNT sheets can be used as an effective adsorbent for salty water desalination due to their very high adsorption capacity. Also, using the oxidized CNT sheets, desalination without CNT leakage into water is economically feasible. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.