Preparation and properties of PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes by pulse electrodeposition

PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes were prepared by pulse electrodeposition in the lead nitrate plating bath containing ZrO2 nanoparticles. The effect of pulse electrodeposition parameters, such as pulse frequency, average current density and duty cycle, on the ZrO2 weight percentage in the PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes was investigated. The SEM and XRD tests show that PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes possess finer grain size than PbO2 electrodes. The service life of PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes reaches 298 h which is 4 times longer than that of PbO2 electrodes. The electrochemical measurements show that PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes possess higher oxygen evolution overpotential and larger active surface area than PbO2 electrodes. The electrocatalytic property of PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes was also examined for the electrochemical oxidation of rhodamine B (RhB) and good fitting was found using the relation for the pseudo-first order reaction. The bulk electrolysis shows that the PbO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite electrodes exhibit the higher RhB and COD removal efficiency than PbO2 electrodes.