Electrochemical degradation of acrylic acid using Ti/Ta2O5-IrO2 electrode

Jinrui Liu; Xiangxin Meng; Luwei Zhai; Guangfei Gao; Wenqiang Jiang; Xuan Zhang

doi:10.1039/d3ra01997g

Electrochemical degradation of acrylic acid using Ti/Ta₂O₅-IrO₂ electrode

RSC Adv. 2023 Jun 8;13(25):17155-17165. doi: 10.1039/d3ra01997g. eCollection 2023 Jun 5.

Authors

Jinrui Liu¹, Xiangxin Meng¹, Luwei Zhai¹, Guangfei Gao¹, Wenqiang Jiang¹, Xuan Zhang¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) Jinan 250353 P. R. China zx@qlu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Acrylic acid (AA) is widely used as a raw material in the industrial production of various chemicals. Its extensive use has produced environmental problems that need to be solved. The Ti/Ta₂O₅-IrO₂ electrode, a type of dimensionally stable anode, was used to investigate the electrochemical deterioration of AA. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that IrO₂ existed as an active rutile crystal and as a TiO₂-IrO₂ solid solution in Ti/Ta₂O₅-IrO₂ electrode with a corrosion potential of 0.212 V and chlorine evolution potential of 1.30 V. The effects of current density, plate spacing, electrolyte concentration, and initial concentration on the electrochemical degradation of AA were investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to determine the ideal degradation conditions: current density 22.58 mA cm^-2, plate spacing 2.11 cm, and electrolyte concentration 0.07 mol L^-1, and the highest degradation rate reached was 95.6%. Free radical trapping experiment verified that reactive chlorine played a dominant role in the degradation of AA. The degradation intermediates were analyzed by GC-MS.