Influence of supporting electrolytes on RO 16 dye electrochemical oxidation using boron doped diamond electrodes

Abstract

The influence of different supporting electrolytes as well as of different current densities on RO16 dye electrochemical oxidation using BDD electrodes has been systematically studied. The RO16 azo-dye electrooxidation experiments were performed at different current densities and three different supporting electrolytes: H2SO4 0.1 mol L-1, HClO4 0.1 mol L-1 and K2SO4 0.1 mol L-1. The results showed that a higher degradation for reactive azo dye RO16 was observed for the K2SO4 (pH=10) supporting electrolyte for a current density of 100 mA cm-2. This behavior can be associated with the deprotonation effect of the dye molecule, which can facilitate breakdown of the molecule, specifically the azo bond making color removal more efficient. In addition, in this pH there is a greater amount of hydroxyl ion (OH-) available increasing the hydroxyl radical formation.