Microstructural and electrochemical studies of spark plasma sintered multiwall carbon nanotubes reinforced TiO2–MnO2 based composite

Abstract

An electrochemical study was conducted to investigate the suitability of TiO2, TiO2-MWCNTs and (5,10 and 15 wt.%) of MnO2 in TiO2-MWCNTs composites as dimensional stable electrodes which were developed via conventional powder processing and spark plasma sintering. The following electrochemical tests were carried out including open circuit potential, galvanostatic chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry measurements. The results showed that an increase on MnO2 content in the composites did not only lower the potentials but enhanced the stability of the composites. The degradation which translates to corrosion susceptibility was favorable on composite samples with lower MnO2 content. Also, the presence of MWCNTs in the composites improved the electrocatalytic capacity of the material. Furthermore, the anodic layers formed on the composites during polarization was analyzed using SEM, XRD and cyclic voltammetry. The results showed that the formation of anodic layer during 24 h of polarization increased with the addition of MnO2 content and 15 MnO2–TiO2-MWCNT composite grade showed minimal pores after polarization which translates to higher protection.