A triethanolamine-assisted fabrication of stable Sb doped-SnO2/Ti electrode for electrocatalytic oxidation of rhodamine B

Abstract

A stable Sb doped SnO2/Ti electrode was successfully fabricated via a triethanolamine-assisted method and used as an anode to degrade Rodanmine B under the acid condition in electrocatalytic oxidation process. The surface of the fabricated Sb-SnO2/Ti was covered 200 nm broccoli-like microsphere mainly composed of Sn element and O element. It was found that the Sb-SnO2/Ti electrode was not changed obviously by the comparison of XRD, XPS, FT-IR, Raman spectrum, and DRUV-Vis before and after reaction. The electrochemical oxidation performance was investigated using Rhodamine B (43.8 mg/L) under the acid solution (pH = 2.0). After 30 cycle tests, the Sb-SnO2/Ti electrode has still a high electrocatalytic activity, and the removal rate of color was over 83%. The CV curve discovered there were three unchanged oxidations peaks at −0.675 V, −0.245 V, and 0.475 V, indicating that the degradation path was consistent during the electrochemical reaction. Moreover, high-contained RhB solution (438 mg/L) was degraded at 10.0 V applied voltage, and the removal rate (CODCr) was over 87% after 270 min. The reaction order was a quasi-second-order kinetics based on the CODCr values in the electrocatalysis system. The i-t curve disclosed that the fabricated Sb-SnO2/Ti electrode was very stable. All experimental data identified that the prepared electrode was high-activate and stable reasonably, which could be used as an anode for the elimination of organic pollutant in wastewater.