An insight on the development of functional carbon electrodes from plastic waste for capacitive deionization towards sustainable water reclamation

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an emerging electrochemical‐based adsorption system that has a high capability for the water reclamation with future potential towards an energy‐efficient and cost‐effective technique for industrial implementations. However, the higher cost of electrodes and poor performance limit its scale‐up, and there is a need to focus on a cost‐effective electrode towards economic impacts. Among the various waste resources, plastic sources would be the better precursor for carbonization as the plastic‐derived carbon possess enhanced surface properties and high electrochemical stability. Further, the carbonization of plastic products towards electrode minimizes greenhouse gas emissions, maintains environmental sustainability and achieves a dual benefit of circular economy with water reclamation. This paper highlights the overview of CDI, the significance of electrodes in CDI for electrosorption studies, various synthetic routes of plastic‐derived carbon, and its properties that help the researchers to focus on zero waste discharge‐based CDI process.