Electrochemical Ozone Generation Using Compacted High Pressure High Temperature Boron Doped Diamond Microparticle Electrodes

Abstract

Electrochemical ozone production (EOP) from water is an attractive, green technology for disinfection. Boron doped diamond (BDD) electrodes, grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), have been widely adopted for EOP due to their wide anodic window in water and excellent chemical and electrochemical stability. High pressure high temperature (HPHT) synthesis, an alternative growth technique used predominantly for the high-volume synthesis of nitrogen doped diamond microparticles, has been seldom employed for the production of conductive BDD electrodes. In this letter, we demonstrate, for the first time, the use of BDD electrodes fabricated from HPHT conductive BDD microparticles for EOP. The BDD microparticles are first compacted to produce freestanding solid electrodes and then laser micromachined to produce a perforated electrode. The HPHT BDD electrodes are shown to exhibit high EOP, producing 2.23 ± 0.07 mg L-1 of ozone per ampere of current, at consistent levels for a continuous 20 hr period with no drop off in performance.