The Role of TiO2 Doping on RuO2-Coated Electrodes for the Water Oxidation Reaction

Electrochemical water splitting into H2 and O2 presents a significant and challenging energy loss due to the high overpotential required at the anode. Today, in industrially relevant applications, dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) based on the electrocatalytic active RuO2 are conventionally utilized. To enhance the resistance against corrosion, incorporation of TiO2 in the RuO2-coated electrodes is widely employed. In the present work we have used scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) to demonstrate that TiO2-doped RuO2-coated electrodes, in addition to being more durable, also show an electrocatalytic activity that is, on average, 13% higher as compared to the pure RuO2-coated electrodes. We also demonstrate that cracks in the pure RuO2 coating are the most active zones, probably because Ti from the Ti support has diffused into the first applied layer of the RuO2 coating. To reveal the nature of this enhanced activity for water oxidation displayed on TiO2-doped RuO2 electrodes, we have employed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for material characterization. The results show that the electrocatalytic activity enhancement displayed on the mixed (Ru1–x:Tix)O2 coating is promoted through a charge transfer from the RuO2 to the TiO2, which provides new and more reactive sites designated as activated RuO2δ+.This study has partly been carried out in the framework of the European Commission FP7 Initial Training Network “ELCAT”, Grant Agreement No. 214936-2. Portions of this research were performed at SPring-8 with the approval of Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute as Nanotechnology Support Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Proposal No. 2007A2005 and 2008A1671/BL-47XU)

Photocatalytic degradation of dibuthyl phthalate: effect of catalyst immobilization

The degradation processes of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), an important pollutant, are rather slow and do not lead to the complete decomposition. In the present work the photocatalytic degradation of dibutyl phthalate in the presence of TiO[sub]2 was studied. Experiments were carried out in suspensions and with immobilized layers, prepared from powder suspensions and by sol-gel technique.Two different polychromatic light sources (band maxima at 350 nm and 365 nm) were used for irradiation. The results confirmed that the photocatalytic degradation of DBP using TiO[sub]2 is an efficient degradation process and proceeds even at very low concentration of photocatalyst (0.001 g dm-3). Reaction rates were significantly higher in the case of the lamp withthe maximum at 365 nm, which is due to the higher light intensity of thislamp. At comparable TiO[sub]2 amount P25 layers exhibit about 50% of photoactivity using TiO[sub]2 suspension