Electrochemical degradation performance and mechanism of dibutyl phthalate with hydrophobic PbO₂ electrode

A polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) doped PbO₂ anode with a highly hydrophobicity was fabricated by electrodeposition method. In this process, vertically aligned TiO₂ nanotubes (TiO₂NTs) are formed by the anodic oxidation of Ti plates as an intermediate layer for PbO₂ electrodeposition. The characterization of the electrodes indicated that PTFE was successfully introduced to the electrode surface, the TiO₂NTs were completely covered with β-PbO₂ particles and gave it a large surface area, which also limited the growth of its crystal particles. Compared with the conventional Ti/PbO₂ and Ti/TiO₂NTs/PbO₂ electrode, the Ti/TiO₂NTs/PbO₂-PTFE electrode has enhanced surface hydrophobicity, higher oxygen evolution potential, lower electrochemical impedance, with more active sites, and generate more hydroxyl radicals (·OH), which were enhanced by the addition of PTFE nanoparticles. The electrocatalytic performance of the three electrodes were investigated using dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as the model pollutant. The efficiency of the DBP removal of the three electrodes was in the order: Ti/TiO₂NTs/PbO₂-PTFE > Ti/TiO₂NTs/PbO₂ > Ti/PbO₂. The degradation process followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model well, with rate constants of 0.1326, 0.1266, and 0.1041 h^-1 for the three electrodes, respectively. The lowest energy consumption (6.1 kWh g^-1) was obtained after 8 h of DBP treatment using Ti/TiO₂NTs/PbO₂-PTFE compared to Ti/TiO₂NTs/PbO₂ (6.7 kWh g^-1) and Ti/PbO₂ (7.4 kWh g^-1) electrodes. Moreover, the effects of current density, initial pH and electrolyte concentration were investigated. Finally, the products of the DBP degradation process were verified based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, and possible degradation pathways were described.