When MXene (Ti3C2Tx) meet Ti/PbO2: An improved electrocatalytic activity and stability

Stable electrode materials with high catalytic activity are urgently required for electrochemical degradation of refractory organic pollutants in wastewater treatment. Herein, high conductive MXene (Ti3C2Tx) was firstly fabricated by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) as an interlayer for preparing a novel PbO2 electrode. The wellconducted Ti3C2Tx interlayer significantly improved the electrochemical performance of the EPD-2.0/PbO2 (EPD time was 2.0 min) electrode with the charge transfer resistance decreased by 9.51 times, the inner active sites increased by 5.21 times and the center dot OH radicals generation ability enhanced by 4.07 times than the control EPD-0/ PbO2 anode. Consequently, the EPD-2.0/PbO2 electrode achieved nearly 100% basic fuchsin (BF) and 86.78% COD removal efficiency after 3.0 h electrolysis. Therefore, this new PbO2 electrode presented a promising potential for electrochemical degradation of BF and the new Ti3C2Tx middle layer could also be used to fabricate other efficient and stable anodes, such as SnO2, MnO2, TiO2, etc.

Automated summary

In this study, a highly conductive MXene (Ti3C2Tx) was fabricated for the first time using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) as an interlayer to prepare a novel PbO2 electrode. The Ti3C2Tx interlayer significantly improved the electrochemical performance of the EPD-2.0/PbO2 electrode, reducing the charge transfer resistance, increasing the number of active sites, and enhancing the generation ability of ·OH radicals. Experimental results showed that the EPD-2.0/PbO2 electrode exhibited promising potential for the electrochemical degradation of basic fuchsin (BF).