Advanced degradation of pentachlorophenol from water and process control using carbon nanofibers based composite electrodes

In the present study, carbon nanofibers-epoxy composite and TiO2-modified carbon nanofibers-epoxy composite (TiO2-CNF) electrodes were prepared by the two-roll mill procedure and characterized morpho-structurally and electrically in order to degrade pentachlorophenol (PCP) from water. Also, taking into account the dual character of the electrode material and electrochemical techniques, the composite electrodes were tested for PCP detection envisaging the degradation process control. Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical characterization of the electrodes was performed by cyclic voltammetry technique in 0.1 M Na2SO4 supporting electrolyte. The degradation process performance was assessed in terms of electrochemical efficiency and a great enhancement of about 25 times was achieved for the photoelectrochemical process in comparison with electrochemical one using TiO2-CNF composite electrode. This electrode exhibited useful peculiarities for PCP detection application both under and without UV irradiation. The validity of the proposed CV-based protocol using a TiO2-CNF composite electrode was determined by its application in the PCP degradation process control. Good accuracy was found by comparison with the results obtained by UV-VIS spectrophotometry.