Electrocatalytic oxidation of gaseous toluene in an all-solid cell using a foam Ti/Sb-SnO2/β-PbO2 anode

Mineralization of benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) with high efficiency at room temperature is still a challenge for the purification of indoor air. In this work, a foam Ti/Sb-SnO2/beta-PbO2 anode catalyst was prepared for electrocatalytically oxidizing gaseous toluene in an all-solid cell at ambient temperature. The complex Ti/Sb-SnO2/beta-PbO2 anode, which was prepared by sequentially deposing Sb-SnO2 and beta-PbO2 on a foam Ti substrate, shows high electrocatalytic oxidation efficiency of toluene (80%) at 7 hr of reaction and high CO2 selec-tivity (94.9%) under an optimized condition, i.e., a cell voltage of 2.0 V, relative humidity of 60% and a flow rate of 100 mL/min. The better catalytic performance can be ascribed to the high production rate of center dot OH radicals from discharging adsorbed water and the inhibition of oxygen evolution on the surface of foam Ti/Sb-SnO2/beta-PbO2 anode when compared with the foam Ti/Sb-SnO2 anode. Our results demonstrate that prepared complex electrodes can be potentially used for electrocatalytic removal of gaseous toluene at room temperature with a good performance. (c) 2022 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.