Co2O3‐NH2‐MCM‐41 Decorated Graphite as an Effective Electrode: Synthesis, Characterization and its Application for Electro‐catalytic Oxidation of Acid Red 1

Abstract

AbstractThe graphite electrode decorated with Co2O3‐NH2‐MCM‐41 was successfully fabricated and the potential for applying this electrode for electro‐catalytic oxidation of Acid Red 1 (AR1) was investigated. The Co2O3‐NH2‐MCM‐41 was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET), X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR). Electrochemical measurements including cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed to investigate electrochemical activity of graphite anode with Co2O3‐NH2‐MCM‐41. The electro‐catalytic oxidation process was carried out via varying different parameters such as voltage, electrolyte pH, electrolyte concentration, current density and interelectrode distance. The results revealed the maximum removal ratio of AR1 was 99.8 %. The AR1 solution was tested during the degradation process by CV analysis at different scan rates, UV‐Vis spectral analysis and gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The linear relationship between peak current and scan rates indicated an adsorption controlled process for AR1 degradation, UV‐Vis analysis revealed that the degradation process took place through reactions such as destruction of azo groups, benzene ring, naphthalene ring and so on, GC/MS analysis demonstrated that AR1 was finally destructed to small molecules by analyzing intermediates during degradation process.