Anodic oxidation of azo dye C.I. Acid Red 73 by the yttrium-doped Ti/SnO2-Sb electrodes

Abstract

This work was conducted to study the ability of anodic oxidation of azo dye C.I. Acid Red 73 (AR73) using the yttrium-doped Ti/SnO2-Sb electrodes. The effects of Sb doping level, yttrium doping level, thermal decomposition temperature and cycle times of dip-coating thermal decomposition on the properties of the electrodes were investigated. The results showed that the excellent electrochemical activity of Ti/SnO2-Sb-Y electrode can be achieved at a 7:1 molar ratio of Sn:Sb and thermal decomposition temperature of 550°C. Moreover when the cycle times of dip-coating and thermal decomposition were up to 10 times, the performance of the electrode tends to be stable. The Ti/SnO2-Sb electrodes doped with yttrium (0.5 mol-%) showed the most excellent electrochemical activity. In addition, the influences of operating variables, including current density, initial pH, dye concentration and support electrolyte, on the colour removal, chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and current efficiency were also investigated. Our results confirmed that the current efficiency increased with the concentrations of dye and sodium chloride. Moreover, increasing the current density and the initial pH would reduce the current efficiency.