Improved electrochemical performance of boron-doped diamond electrode depending on the structure of titanium substrate

•The structure of porous Ti enhances the surface area of BDD film electrode.•Porous Ti improves the electrochemical activity of Ti/BDD electrodes.•Higher response current could be realized on 3D-Ti/BDD electrode.•3D-Ti/BDD shows better electrochemical oxidation ability for aspirin.•The stability of Ti/BDD electrode is improved as the introduction of porous Ti.

This work is focused on the role of porous titanium (Ti) substrate on the electrochemical performance of boron-doped diamond (BDD) films. BDD film deposited on porous Ti substrate combines the excellent property of porous Ti and BDD film, porous Ti endows the film three-dimensional (3D) porous performance and enhances the surface area of BDD electrode. The effective electrochemical surface area of 3D-Ti/BDD electrode is 8.37 cm2 cm− 2, 3.2 times as much as that of conventional plate BDD electrode while smaller electron transfer resistance (31.3 Ω cm2) for Fe(CN)63 −/Fe(CN)64 − redox couple on 3D-Ti/BDD electrode is obtained compared to 128.3 Ω cm2. 3D-Ti/BDD electrode presents higher response current and the degradation of aspirin reveals that corresponding kinetic constant for plate and 3D-Ti/BDD electrode is 0.185 h− 1 and 0.367 h− 1, respectively. Moreover, porous BDD electrode owns higher stability analyzing by accelerated life tests, 25% higher than plate BDD electrode. The enhancement of electrocatalytic activity and stability is essentially attributed to porous structure of Ti substrate.

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