Investigation of boron-doped diamond on porous Ti for electrochemical oxidation of acetaminophen pharmaceutical drug

• Electrochemical oxidation of acetaminophen is investigated on porous Ti/BDD electrode.
• The current response from chronoamperometric curve is proportionally linear with the acetaminophen concentration.
• Higher response slope and current efficiency could be obtained on porous Ti/BDD electrode.
• Electrochemical generation and utilization rate of hydroxyl radical are associated with the structure characteristic.

The electrochemical oxidation of acetaminophen, a kind of potentially dangerous pharmaceutical compound, is conducted on planar and porous Ti/boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes to investigate the effect of electrode structure on the electrochemical oxidation behavior. Oxidative peak corresponding to the electron transfer of acetaminophen could be observed around 0.90 V (versus saturated calomel electrode, SCE) on BDD electrodes. The current response from a chronoamperometric curve is proportionally linear in the concentration range from 0 to 3 mmol L− 1 and higher response slope could be obtained on porous Ti/BDD electrode. Complete mineralization can be realized on Ti/BDD electrodes while porous Ti/BDD presents higher COD removal rate and current efficiency compared with planar BDD. The decay kinetics of acetaminophen on BDD electrodes follows a pseudo-first-order behavior, and the corresponding apparent rate constants are 0.208 and 0.344 h− 1 for planar and porous Ti/BDD electrodes at 30 mA cm− 2. From the detection of hydroxyl radicals, higher generation rate and amount can be obtained on porous Ti/BDD electrode. The enhancement for electrochemical oxidation is related to the porous structure of porous Ti/BDD electrode, which provides more active sites for hydroxyl radicals (OH) generation. The discrepancy between the COD removal and amount of OH could be explained by the utilization rate of OH.

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