New TiO"2/C sol-gel electrodes for photoelectrocatalytic degradation of sodium oxalate [An article from: Chemosphere]

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Description:
This paper reports the preparation of carbon doped TiO"2 electrodes by a modification of a sol-gel route. The electrodes have been characterized by measuring their photocurrent, as a function of applied potential. Their photoelectrocatalytic activity, relative to similar sol-gel electrodes without carbon, has been assessed by measuring the decomposition of a 10mM sodium oxalate solution. Measurements have been made on electrodes prepared with 2%, 5% and 10% of active carbon. The highest photocurrents and the highest photoelectrocatalytic activity were both obtained with electrodes prepared by heating, at 600^oC, electrodes prepared with 5% of active carbon. All the electrodes showed evidence of enhanced photocatalytic activity at 1.2V. Five percent addition of C double the measured rates of photodegradation, even though, in these preliminary studies, no attempt has been made to optimize the type of carbon or the details of the electrode preparation.