Preparation and characterization of Ti/SnO₂ electrocatalytic electrode with nano-coating

Taking ammonia as precipitator, the precursors of sol-gel process for preparation of SnO₂ nano-coating on Ti base metal were prepared by chemical co-precipitation in aquatic solution of SnCl₄ and SbCl₃. The SnO₂ nano-coating was then fabricated by sol-gel method and thermal oxidation technique. The efficiency of electrochemical degradation for phenol and the service life of electrodes were also studied. The electrodes with nano-coating showed higher efficiency and longer service life than that of electrodes with non-nanostructured coating. The degradation time decreased 33.3% for the same amount of phenol's degradation. The relationship between the electrocatalytic properties and the nano-coating, e.g., micrograph of the electrode surface, particle size, and the chemical environment of Sn and Sb in the electrode surface, was analyzed using SEM, XRD, and XPS. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 229th ACS National Meeting (San Diego, CA 3/13-17/2005).