Fabrication and characterization of Pt doped Ti/Sb-SnO2electrode and its efficient electro-catalytic activity toward phenol

Abstract

An optimized metal oxide electrode was prepared via the simple thermal decomposition method to improve the stability and electro-catalytic properties. It was found that Pt doping could effectively change the surface morphology. The Ti/Pt-Sb-SnO2electrode possess compact and uniform surface packed with a large number of small particles. Besides, the influence of the Pt on the electrochemical performance was analyzed in detail. The oxygen evolution potential of Ti/Pt-Sb-SnO2electrode decreased slightly, but it showed a smaller charge transfer resistance (0.2 Ω·cm2versus 1.67 Ω·cm2) and a longer service lifetime which is almost 24-times longer than that of Ti/Sb-SnO2(73 h versus 3h). Finally, electro-catalytic oxidation of phenol was employed. In the electro-catalytic process, both phenol and its possible intermediates were more rapidly decomposed on the Ti/Pt-Sb-SnO2electrodes. The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was 95.56% and 56.31% on the Ti/Pt-Sb-SnO2and Ti/Sb-SnO2electrodes, respectively. And the corresponding instantaneous current efficiency (ICE) of Ti/Pt-Sb-SnO2electrode was higher than that of Ti/Sb-SnO2. Based on the experimental results, the prepared Ti/Pt-Sb-SnO2electrode has better stability and excellent phenol electro-catalytic ability, further signifying that it has a good potential application prospect in the field of wastewater.