Fabrication and catalytic activities of anodes consisting of ZnO nanorods on boron-doped diamond film

Abstract Boron-doped diamond (BDD) and ZnO are widely used in the fields of electrocatalysis and photocatalysis, respectively. In general, BDDs are used directly as anodes or the bottom electrodes of multilayered films owing to processing difficulties, while ZnO is more often used to fabricate nanostructures because it provides a large specific surface area that is very helpful for enhancing catalytic performance. In this study, a nanoporous (NP) surface was constructed on a BDD film grown on Ta substrate, and ZnO nanorods were grown in situ on the NPBDD to enhance adhesion between the ZnO nanorod layer and the NPBDD surface. The effect of the BDD-surface-pore structure on the growth sizes and morphologies of the ZnO nanorods was studied by analyzing the microstructures, phases, and compositions of the samples. In addition, the photoelectrocatalytic performance of ZnO/NPBDD anodes in aniline degradation was analyzed and compared to that of conventional BDD and NPBDD anodes. The mechanism for the degradation of the ZnO/NPBDD film was analyzed by UV–vis spectroscopy and the ZnO/NPBDD anode was used to rapidly decompose aniline in a photoelectro-Fenton reaction following pH and current optimization. In short, ZnO/NPBDD films are potentially useful photoelectric anodes for the degradation of organic matter.