Electrochemical Reduction of Perchlorate Using Mercury Film Electrode

Abstract

: A method for electrochemical degradation of the perchlorate anion (ClO 4 -) using mercury film electrode has been studied. Electrochemical method has relatively simple pre-treatment. However, electrochemical method should avoid interference from hydrogen evolution at the applied potential to degradation of perchlorate ion, and thus applied electrode should have large hydrogen overvoltage which suppressed the hydrogen evolution at the working reduction potential to prevent hydrogen evolution. In this study, we used mercury film electrode as a working electrode which has a large overvoltage. Ag / AgCl (sat. NaCl) was used as a reference electrode, and platinum was used as a counter electrode. Mercury film electrode was made by cyclic voltammetry (CV) method. The deposition time was decided as 10 minute, and the stability of the mercury electrode in perchlorate solution was confirmed by CV. The reduction potential of perchlorate was checked by using CV method, and decomposition of perchlo-