Ti-based anodes are widely applied in water splitting, the chlor-alkali industry, hydrometallurgy, and organic compound electrochemical synthesis. However, the thickening passivation layer in Ti substrates in acidic electrolytes accelerates the deactivation of whole Ti-based anodes. In order to block the attack from the reactive oxygen species, a compact interlayer containing ternary metal oxides (SnO2, TiO2, and Nb2O5, STN) on Ti foil (denoted as Ti-STN) was prepared via a facile thermal-decomposition method. The SnO2, TiO2, and Nb2O5 components impose the mutual restriction of grain growth during the pyrolytic synthetic progress, which promotes the grain refinement of STN interlayers. Due to the compact and stable STN interlayers, the Ti-STN substrate and the Ti-STN-derived active anodes presented an enhanced corrosion resistance and prolonged service lives. Hence, we believe that the Ti-STN substrate and the grain-refinement method to resist electrochemical corrosion in this work offer new approaches for the development of industrial electrolysis and electrochemical energy conversion devices.
Keywords: Sn/Ti/Nb ternary metal oxides; Ti-based anodes; corrosion resistance; grain refinement; interlayers.