Improved electrochemical oxidation of tricyclazole from aqueous solution by enhancing mass transfer in a tubular porous electrode electrocatalytic reactor

Abstract

Application of commercial electrochemical oxidation reactor for industry discharge water was limited by the inefficient mass transfer of molecule. For this case, a functional electrocatalytic reactor was designed to enhance the mass transfer of the electrochemical oxidation. The reactor is composed of a tubular porous Ti-RuO2 electrode and a stainless steel tube. The electrode was fabricated by loading an electrocatalytic membrane of RuO2 on a porous Ti tube. Characterization of the electrode was analyzed by FE-SEM, XRD, XPS and bubble point method. The results show that the electrode consisted of micropore structure which pore size and porosity were 0.98μm and 27%, respectively. Further, the results of cyclic voltammetry method have proved that porous electrode has larger electrochemical surface area than plate electrode with the same geometrical area. In addition, the steady-state of chronoamperometry measurements by the reactor was as twice as that of plate electrode, indicating a significant enhancement of mass transfer. Electrochemical oxidation of tricyclazole was investigated with reactor and plate electrode under different initial concentration and current density. By the comparison with plate electrode, the reactor has higher removal rate and current efficiency. The high performance of electrocatalytic reactor based on the tubular porous Ti-RuO2 electrode in the electrochemical oxidation is mainly attributed to mass transfer enhancement via the pump and larger electrochemical surface area due to porous structure.