Preparation of an Ultra-Long-Life Porous Bilayer Ti/Sb-Sno2 Electrode Modified by Nano-Tic and its Performance

Abstract

Low energy efficiency and short lifetime are the key issues hindering the widespread application of electrodes. In this study, Ti/Sb-SnO 2 -TiC electrode life was 580 min (2000 mA/cm 2 , 1 mol/L H 2 SO 4 ) prepared by sol-gel electrodeposition with the introduction of titanium carbide (TiC) nanoparticles, and the phenol degradation rate was 90.65% (500 mg/L phenol,0.25 mol/L Na 2 SO 4 ). A comprehensive physical phase analysis of the electrode by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR) showed that the prepared Ti/Sb-SnO 2 -TiC electrode had good crystallinity, and the double-layer SnO 2 almost completely covered the titanium matrix and the adsorbed oxygen content was high; scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) of the microscopic morphology and composition of the active layer indicated that the electrode had a double-layer porous structure; the electrochemical performance of the cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis electrodes showed an oxygen precipitation potential of 2.13 V, a current density of 0.096 A/cm 2 , a charge transfer resistance of 2.245 Ω and a double-layer capacitance current density, ΔJ dl , of 1.48 mF·cm -2 , which improved the electrode lifetime while maintaining a reasonable electron transport. The electrodes prepared in this study are simple in the manufacturing process employed, suitable for industrial applications, with a substantially increased lifetime and improved energy utilization.

Keywords: double-layer, porous structure, Ti/Sb-SnO2 electrode, water treatment, life time