Electro-Assisted Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange on TiO<sub>2</sub> Film Using NaCl as Electrolyte

Abstract

Porous and smooth TiO2 film electrodes prepared by sol-gel method were used on methyl orange degradation by an electro-assisted photocatalytic degradation process. When using the applied potential along, there was no obvious degradation of methyl orange whether using TiO2 film electrode prepared using PEG template or not. The largest difference between the two electrodes appears at potential of 0.7 V in 0.05 mol/l NaCl solution, and the porous electrode shows better degradation activity in electro-assisted photocatalytic degradation. When NaCl concentration was 0.07 mol/l, degradation rates on porous and smooth film electrodes were 51.16% and 32.35 %, respectively. After 100 min of irradiation, 90% of the methyl orange degraded on the porous TiO2 film electrode, and 79.87% of the methyl orange degraded on the smooth TiO2 film electrode.