Photoelectrocatalytic oxidation of rhodamine B in aqueous solution using Ti/TiO₂mesh photoelectrodes

To further improve the photooxidation techniques for water and wastewater purification, a Ti/TiO2mesh electrode, was successfully prepared by anodizing Ti mesh in 0.5M H2SO4solution. The structural and surface morphology of the Ti/TiO2electrode was examined by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) respectively. The examination results indicated that its structure and properties were affected by its growth rate in the anodization process, and anatase TiO2was dominant in its composition. The photocatalytic (PC) oxidation and photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) oxidation of rhodamine B in aqueous solution using the Ti/TiO2electrode were investigated and compared. The experimental results demonstrated that the PEC oxidation by applying an electrical bias between the Ti/TiO2electrode and Pt electrode could significantly enhance the degradation rate of rhodamine B compared with the PC oxidation. It was found that the best performance of PEC oxidation was achieved by applying the electrical bias of 0.6 V. The mechanism of rhodamine B degradation in the PEC process was discussed by studying the changes of absorbance spectrum and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of rhodamine B during the PEC degradation. The experimental results illustrated that both de-ethylation and chromogen destruction of rhodamine B under UV-light irradiation in the PEC degradation took place simultaneously.