Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Decoloration of Amaranth Dye Azo Using Composited Dimensional Stable Anodes

Abstract

In this paper we report the results of our experimental work conducted to decoloration of a well-known highly toxic Amaranth dye by electrochemical and photoelectrochemical methods. Throughout this investigation were used two different Dimensional Stable Anode (DSA) electrodes, namely, IrO2-Ru2O-SnO2-TiO2/Ti and Ru2O-SnO2-TiO2/Ti. The experimental results show that IrO2-Ru2O-SnO2-TiO2/Ti electrode has higher performance on amaranth decoloration than Ru2O-SnO2-TiO2/Ti electrode, but with the disadvantage of higher energy consumption. For higher degradation of Amaranth dye with both DSA electrodes, the process was carried out via photoelectrochemical method. Our experimental results clearly shown the decrease in absorbance of all UV-Vis peaks due to the mineralization of the azo dye; also, it was noteworthy photoelectrochemical process consumes less energy under the same experimental conditions than electrochemical process. The IrO2-Ru2O-SnO2-TiO2/Ti electrode reaches a higher degradation degree of Amaranth solutions than Ru2O-SnO2-TiO2/Ti electrode using a photoelectrochemical technique.