Diamond fibers for efficient electrocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants

The efficient electrocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants requires an electrode with a large surface area, high electrocatalytic activities, long-term stability, and a low cost. Herein, the diamond fibers (DFs) are synthesized by overgrowing the cost-effective carbon fibers as the core with a uniform boron dopped diamond (BDD) film as a shell. Since these fibrous core/shell-like DFs combine both features of BDD and carbon fiber, they are utilized as the electrode for the efficient electrocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants. The DFs exhibit a 5.2-fold larger surface area and a 6.8-fold higher peak current density than those of a planar BDD electrode. Methyl orange is degraded below the limit of detection within 1.5 h using these DFs, while the degradation fraction using a planar BDD electrode is only 22%. For other various organic pollutants, these DFs exhibit excellent degradation capacity. Such a high performance of electrocatalytic degradation of these environmental pollutants originates from increased surface areas and active sites by the three-dimensional fibrous structure as well as the decreased charge-transfer resistance by the core/shell structure. These DFs are thus promising as a new electrode material or an electrocatalyst for various catalytic applications in the environmental and energy fields. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The efficient electrocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants is achieved by synthesizing diamond fibers (DFs) with a large surface area and high peak current density as the electrode. DFs can effectively degrade organic pollutants in a short period of time due to their unique structure combining boron dopped diamond film and carbon fibers.