Kinetics and Efficiency Analysis of Electrochemical Oxidation of Phenol: Influence of Anode Materials and Operational Conditions

The influence of operational parameters and anode materials on degradation kinetics, mineralization current efficiency, and energy consumption for electrochemical oxidation of phenol was studied. Phenol elimination follows pseudo-first-order kinetics in most cases except for the Ti/RuO 2 anode with a phenol concentration of 500mgL -1, where pseudo-zero-order kinetics is observed. The total organic carbon removal by a Ti/Sb-SnO 2 anode follows pseudo-first-order kinetics in contrast to pseudo-zero-order kinetics by Pt and Ti/RuO 2 anodes. For a certain anode, a higher current or voltage input results in a higher reaction rate. With a Ti/Sb-SnO 2 anode, the highest current efficiency and the lowest energy consumption are obtained, but the current efficiency decreases (increases for energy consumption) quickly as the reaction is prolonged due to the reduction of organics. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.link_to_subscribed_fulltex