Electrochemical oxidation of aqueous phenol at low concentration using Ti/BDD electrode

The high quality boron-doped diamond (BDD) film electrodes deposited on titanium (Ti) substrate have been prepared by a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MP-CVD) method. The products consist of high quality dense grains characterized by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) employed. The BDD electrodes have wide electrochemical window (approximate 4.0 V) and low background current (near zero) and the oxidation peak of phenol appears before the discharge of water, examined by cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry. Compared with the fluorine-doped lead dioxide anodes (Ti/F-PbO2), the Ti/BDD anodes showed higher current efficiency and lower power consumption with degradation of low concentration phenol. The experimental results demonstrated that the BDD electrode on the Ti substrate possesses the excellent electrocatalytic activity in dilute solution. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.