Ultra-high oxidation potential of Ti/Cu-SnO2 anodes fabricated by spray pyrolysis for wastewater treatment

Abstract

High oxidation potential indicates anodes have high oxidation power and high current efficiency for organics oxidation. In this paper, we prepared Ti/Cu-SnO2 anodes using spray pyrolysis method. The Ti/Cu-SnO2 anodes have an ultra-high oxidation potential of about 2.7 V vs NHE, suitable for use in wastewater treatment. The Ti/Cu-SnO2 anodes exhibit the preferred orientation along (110) plane at high Cu doped concentration. First-principles calculations suggest that work function of Cu-SnO2 increases with the Cu doping concentration. It is obtained that the preferred (110) plane and the high work function are responsible for the enhanced oxidation potential of Ti/Cu-SnO2 anodes.