Electrical activation of hydrogen peroxide for organic contaminant degradation using an improved gas diffusion cathode

Abstract

Electrochemical degradation technology, being an environment-friendly way for the elimination of a broad-range of organic contaminants from water, is limited by low efficiency and high cost. In this study, an improved gas diffusion electrode (GDE) was constructed by rolling carbon black and polytetrafluoroethylene as conductive catalyst layer to improve the hydrogen peroxide production. The maximum concentration of 259.6 mM was obtained after 60 min, which is roughly eight times higher than the value obtained using the traditional reference cathode. Experiments indicated that the degradation of phenol in the electrochemical process was dominated by radical based mechanisms, which was obtained by the electro-generation and the subsequent electro-activation of hydrogen peroxide at the cathode interface.