Preparation and Characterization of a Porous Structure PbO2-ZrO2 Nanocomposite Electrode and Its Application in Electrocatalytic Degradation of Crystal Violet

Abstract

A novel porous PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrode was successfully prepared by bubbles template composite electrodeposition methods for the first time. Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the novel porous PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes have the three-dimensional porous structure and smaller crystal sizes than planar PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes. ZrO2 nanoparticles can be observed on the electrodes. The cyclic voltammetry measurement show that the electrochemical active surface area of porous PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes is 3 times than that of planar PbO2-ZrO2 electrodes. In the electrocatalytic oxidization process of crystal violet, the color and COD removal efficiency on the porous composite electrodes is 99.8% and 69.2% after 90 min. The degradation process follows pseudo-first-order kinetics. The rate constant for porous composite electrodes can reach 0.04916 min−1, which is 4.5 times than that for planar composite electrodes (0.01188 min−1). Moreover, the three-dimensional porous structure can enhance the generation capacity of hydroxyl radicals. The experiment results illustrate that the porous PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes have a great application potential in the pollutant degradation fields.