Electrochemical Degradation of Phenol by the Nanographite and Foam-Ni Composite Cathode

Abstract

The degradation of phenol was demonstrate with a novel two-layer type cathode (TTC). For the fabrication of TTC, chitosan was firstly deposited on foam nickel, then one piece of the resulting foam-Ni film and one piece of nanographite(Nano-G) composite film were fasten to obtain the two-layer type nano-G︱foam-Ni cathode. The electrolysis phenol was conducted by self-made cathode and the Ti/IrO2/RuO2 anode in the diaphragm cell. The results showed that in the diaphragm electrolysis system with the aeration conditions, the degradation rate of phenol reached 97.15% under 120min’s electrolysis, when current density was 39 mA/cm2, initial pH value was 12 and electrolyte concentration was 0.1 mol/L. This two-layer type cathode could be reused without catalytic activity decrease, suggesting its potential application in the wastewater treatment.