Capacitive deionization (CDI) is
a promising desalination
technology
to meet the growing demand for clean water resources. Carbon-based
materials, as one of the most appealing electrode candidates for CDI,
are still limited by low adsorption capacity and slow rates. Heteroatom
doping of carbonaceous materials is considered a promising strategy
for high-performance CDI desalination. Herein, hierarchically porous
carbon with uniformly dispersed Fe–N active centers (FeNC)
is fabricated by a one-step pyrolysis treatment from a Zn–Fe
bimetal–organic framework. The systematic analysis demonstrated
that the synergistic effect of the uniformly dispersed Fe and N increased
the specific surface area and graphitization degree of the carbonaceous
framework. Moreover, the electrochemical analysis confirmed that Fe
intervention effectively increased the specific capacitance and reduced
the charge-transfer resistance, ensuring a more desirable electrical
double-layer capacitor (EDLC) behavior. As expected, FeNC exhibited
an excellent electrosorption capacity of 28.88 mg g–1 and a faster rate (1.85 mg g–1 min–1). The results indicated that the introduction of trace Fe can not
only modulate the structural properties of carbon materials to provide
more accessible adsorption sites but also form Fe–N to accelerate
electron transfer. This work provides a profound insight into the
crucial role of Fe–N active centers in carbon-based CDI desalination.