Efficient Electrochemical Degradation of Malachite Green Using Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide (FTO) Conductive Glass as Anode

The malachite green (MG) has been widely used in the aquaculture and textile industry as drugs and dyes, respectively. In recent years, it has been found that MG has side effects such as carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and mutagenesis. So it becomes particularly important to degrade MG for these industries. In this paper, a set of equipment using FTO conductive glass was developed for degradation of MG. Several factors affecting the efficiency of electrochemical degradation, including the solution of pH, electrolyte, applied current density and degradation time were investigated. Based on the results of single-factor experiment, the response surface methodology (RSM) was used for optimal conditions. The degradation rate of MG reaches above 98% by electrolysis in 6.56 g/L NaCl (pH 8.84) solution with current density as 8.61 mA/cm(2) for 20 min. The degradation process was preliminarily investigated by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectrometry, and total organic carbon analysis. The equipment and operation is simple, therefore could be used for the degradation of wastewater yielded during production.