A novel fabrication method for titanium dioxide/activated carbon fiber electrodes and the effects of titanium dioxide on phenol degradation

Abstract In this paper, the nano-titanium dioxide/activated carbon fiber (TiO 2 /ACF) electrodes are prepared by using ship-in-a-bottle method with Ti(OC 4 H 9 ) 4 as a raw material. The amounts of TiO 2 immobilized on the activated carbon fiber are 0.14, 0.28 and 0.42 g/g ACF, respectively. The adsorption behavior and electro-catalytic oxidation of phenol with these three kinds of electrodes are investigated. Experimental results show that the maximum adsorption quantities of the phenol decreased by 12.41%, 17.25% and 32.38% respectively with the increase of TiO 2 , while the adsorption rates decreased by 56.22%, 71.26% and 88.73%, respectively. However, the removal efficiency of phenol and the production rate of hydroxyl radicals ( OH) increased with the increase of TiO 2 . Compared with sol–gel method, TiO 2 /ACF electrode prepared by ship-in-a-bottle method not only exhibit better electro-catalytic activity and stability, but also cheaper. Because the amount of Ti(OC 4 H 9 ) 4 used to prepare TiO 2 can be reduced by more than 33%. In addition, the nano-TiO 2 particles, smaller and more uniform in size, can be immobilized firmly and prepared easily in this method.