Double-side effect of B/C ratio on BDD electrode detection for heavy metal ion in water

Jingxuan Pei; Xiang Yu; Songbo Wei; Rabah Boukherroub; Yihe Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145430

Double-side effect of B/C ratio on BDD electrode detection for heavy metal ion in water

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jun 1:771:145430. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145430. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Authors

Jingxuan Pei¹, Xiang Yu², Songbo Wei³, Rabah Boukherroub⁴, Yihe Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Materials Utilisation of Nonmetallic Minerals and Solid Wastes, National Laboratory of Mineral Materials, School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), 29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian, Beijing 100083, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Materials Utilisation of Nonmetallic Minerals and Solid Wastes, National Laboratory of Mineral Materials, School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), 29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: yuxiang@cugb.edu.cn.
³ PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, 20 Xueyuan Road, Haidian, Beijing 100083, China.
⁴ Univ. Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, ISEN, Univ. Valenciennes, UMR 8520, IEMN, F-59000, Lille, France.
⁵ Beijing Key Laboratory of Materials Utilisation of Nonmetallic Minerals and Solid Wastes, National Laboratory of Mineral Materials, School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), 29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: zyh@cugb.edu.cn.

PMID: 33736132
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145430

Abstract

BDD (Boron-doped Diamond) electrode may hold a promising application to detect heavy metal ions for actual water monitoring and early warning, but a poor understanding of influence mechanism of B/C ratio on detection performance is in the way of its fabrication and application. This work is intended to reveal the double-side effect of B/C ratio on detection performance of BDD electrode so as to facilitate its actual application. SBDD (Self-supported Boron-doped Diamond) electrode is introduced for the first time to get rid of the interference factors such as substrate. A systematic investigation is conducted for the influence of B/C ratio on microstructure and electrochemical behavior of SBDD electrodes. With the increase of B/C ratio, the grain size continuously increases, and the preferred orientation gradually changes from plane (220) to (111). The gradual increasing of impurity phase content indicates a deterioration of diamond phase quality. In addition, the electrode electrochemical behavior initially gets better then worse. SBDD electrode with a B/C ratio of 1/500 has the largest active surface area of 2.1 cm², the smallest diffusion resistance and the highest signal response. Under optimal parameter set, the SBDD electrode enjoys a sensitivity of 0.42 μA L μg^-1 cm^-2 and a detection limit of 1.12 μg L^-1 in a wide linear range of 5-120 ppb. The phase quality and grain morphology jointly contribute to the double-side effect. A suitable B-sp³-C content, preferred orientation of (111) and small particle size may make the performance improvement of BDD electrode available.

Keywords: B/C ratio; Double-side effect; Electrochemical detection; Lead ion; Self-supported boron-doped diamond.