Water pollution and scarcity are serious concerns for the growing world population. To meet the ever-pressing demand of fresh water, a variety of desalting techniques of seawater have been developed. Due to its environmental friendliness, high efficiency, easy regeneration of the electrodes, ambient operating pressure, and low operating potential suitable for the use in remote areas, the capacitive deionization (CDI) method is one of the most sustainable among them. This work focuses on the preparation of high-entropy oxides (HEOs) and carbon/HEO composites and the evaluation of their specific capacitance in view of their possible use as CDI electrode materials. CrMnFeCoNi-HEO, having spinel structure (sHEO), is obtained in the form of nanoparticles (NPs) and nanofibers (NFs) by the sol–gel method and electrospinning, respectively. Composite NFs with embedded sHEO NPs or MgCoNiCuZn-HEO NPs with rock-salt structure (rHEO) are also produced. In the 5–100 mV s⁻¹ scan rate range, the specific capacitance improves in the order C/rHEO NFs (8–32 F g⁻¹) ≅ sHEO NPs (9–32 F g⁻¹) < sHEO NFs (8–43 F g⁻¹) < C/sHEO NFs (12–66 F g⁻¹). The highest capacitance is obtained when the beneficial contributions of the carbon matrix and smaller-sized HEO NPs are synergistically coupled.

A downstream process for the recovery, purification and concentration of acetic acid from an extremely diluted solution, involving demineralization, treatment with a mixed bed ion exchange resin and step-elution with H₂SO₄.

This study reports the development of multifunctional silica aerogel-based composites designed to balance ultralow thermal conductivity, enhanced mechanical robustness, and surface electrical conductivity for advanced aerospace applications. Silica aerogel panels were fabricated via an optimized molding process using a latex-based binder system. The resulting composites achieved a density of 0.171 g/cm³ and maintained super-insulating performance with a thermal conductivity (λ) of 0.0160 W/m·K, effectively preventing thermal bridging by restricting binder infiltration to the interstitial voids between aerogel particles. Mechanical characterization revealed a significant improvement in structural integrity over monolithic aerogels, with a Young’s modulus of 2.1 ± 0.1 MPa and a compressive stress at 10% deformation of 123 ± 6 kPa. To impart electrical functionality for the mitigation of electrostatic charges, a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coating was developed via a one-step hydrothermal synthesis and deposited using a spray-coating technique. The nature of the dopants used in the rGO synthesis significantly influenced the final properties, with rGO-Fe providing the highest electrical conductivity (1.07 ± 0.22 S/cm) and rGO-Mg/Na exhibiting the highest hydrophobicity (contact angles up to 126.3°). Although the graphene coatings slightly increased the thermal conductivity (e.g., 0.0208 W/m·K for rGO-Mg), the composites remained highly efficient insulators. The developed multifunctional materials offer a lightweight solution that integrates thermal protection with essential electrical and mechanical properties.