Investigation on preparation and electrocatalytic characteristics of Ti-base SnO₂ electrode with nano-coating

In order to enhance the electrocatalytic characteristics of Ti/SnO₂ electrode, a type of Ti-base tin dioxide electrocatalytic electrode with nano-coating was prepared by the sol-gel method and the thermal oxidation techniques. Taking phenol as a model pollutant, the efficiency of electrochemical degradation and the service life of electrodes was investigated. Additionally, the micrograph of the electrode surface, the particle size of nanometer coating, the element composition of different layers and the chemical environment of Sn and Sb in the electrode surface were analyzed with the help of SEM, XRD and XPS. It was found that the nano-coating electrodes have a higher efficiency for phenol degradation than do electrodes with a non-nanostructured coating. The degradation time decreased by 33.3% compared to the phenol′ s degradation. The results also showed that the surface of the electrode was mainly SnO₂ crystal with rutile structure and the particle size of the nanometer coating was about 10 nm.