Facile chemical bath deposition to fabricate RuO2 electrodes for electrochemical chlorine evolution

Development of a facile preparation process for dimensional stable anodes (DSA) is an important issue to reduce the fabrication cost. During the last three decades, chemical bath deposition (CBD) has emerged as one approach which deposits a thin film with a facile method in ambient conditions. In this study, RuO2 electrodes were fabricated by the CBD method for electrochemical chlorine evolution. The major results show that the CBD method enables the formation of uniform rutile RuO2 nanocrystals with an average size of 30 nm. The electrode morphologies were formed with cracks and pores, and the RuO2 thin films had good adhesion on the Ti substrates. Thermally treated RuO2 films exhibited a high electrocatalytic activity and stability in chlorine evolution satisfying the requirements for a DSA. The amount of deposited RuO2 as well as the cracks, electrocatalytic activity, and stability in chlorine evolution increased with the deposition time. CBD is an attractive synthesis route to fabricate a RuO2 electrode for electrochemical chlorine evolution.