Improvement ITO/WO3 photo anode electrode fabrication using electrodeposition technique for highly efficient photoelectrocatalytic insecticide degradation

Abstract

The improvement of a semiconductor thin film preparation technique is considered to be the primary strategy for photoelectrocatalytic technique development. This research study's focus was to develop an electrodeposition technique for tungsten oxide (WO3) thin film fabrication to improve photoelectrocatalytic activities for water oxidation and insecticide degradation application. WO3 thin film deposition on conductive glass was developed using the electrochemical amperometric and cyclic voltammetric methods to optimize the essential parameters that affect the characteristics and photoelectrocatalytic properties of the fabricated WO3 electrode. Characteristics such as the visible light absorption, morphology, crystalline structure, and photoelectrocatalytic oxidation activities of the fabricated WO3 electrode were studied and compared with both electrodeposition methods. The fabricated WO3 electrode was found to improve photoelectrocatalytic water oxidation more with the amperometric method than with the cyclic voltammetric method and the traditional spin coating method, up to 4 times and 60 times, respectively. Photoelectrocatalytic enhancement is clarified by the effect of visible light absorption, roughness morphology, crystallinity, and charge transfer rate improvement. We can approve the efficacy of the developed WO3 electrode for insecticide removal under the photoelectrocatalytic mechanism. This is suitable for further scaling up the study for a wastewater treatment system application.