Structure and properties of PbO2–CeO2 anodes on stainless steel

The lack of ideal anodes with excellent activity and stability is one of the critical problems in electrochemical oxidation for organic wastewater treatment. It is reported in this paper that the PbO2–CeO2 films electrodeposited on stainless steel were used as catalytic electrodes for treating antibiotic wastewater. The PbO2–CeO2 films on stainless steel were proved to be high stability, good activity and relatively low cost. Because of these properties, the films are more attractive than any other electrocatalytic materials among conventional dimensionally stable anodes (DSA). Experimental results showed that the PbO2–CeO2 electrode has a service life of 1100 h in 3 M H2SO4 solution under a current density of 1 A cm−2 at 35 °C, compared with 300 h for PbO2 under the same conditions. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and SEM images indicated that the PbO2–CeO2 films on stainless steel have a dense structure and the preferred crystalline orientation on the substrate surface was changed. Color and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of antibiotics wastewater were studied by electrolysis by using these electrodes as anode and stainless steel as cathode. The results indicated that the anodes have excellent activity in antibiotic wastewater treatment. The PbO2–CeO2 electrodes have high chemical stability which contributed by the superstable nature of the electrode, dense microstructure, good conductivity and the improvement of bonding with the stainless steel during electrodeposition.