Fabrication of tubular porous titanium membrane electrode and application in electrochemical membrane reactor for treatment of wastewater

In this study, tubular titanium membrane (TTM) /SnO2-Sb/SnO2-Sb-CeO2 porous anode was fabricated and used in continuous tubular membrane reactor for electrochemical treatment of dye wastewater. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were used to evaluate the morphology and microstructure of the different tubular titanium membrane. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and accelerated service life test are employed to illustrate the performance of TTM/SnO2-Sb/SnO2-Sb-CeO2 porous membrane electrode. It is found that TTM/SnO2-Sb/SnO2-Sb-CeO2 active layer on titanium membrane has compact microstructure, high over-potential for oxygen evolution (2.10 V vs saturated calomel electrode). The effects of pore diameter, applied voltage and flow rate on the electro-catalytic property of the tubular porous electrode were investigated. Study shows titanium membrane reactor with an optimized pore diameter of 10 μm has the lowest energy consumption which is important for the practical application of electrochemical technology. The performance of titanium tubular membrane reactor is investigated by treating methylene blue (MB) wastewater under the cell voltage of 3.0–4.5 V and the flow rate of 2.5–3.5 L min−1. This continuous titanium membrane electrochemical reactor using solar cell show excellent performance in treating dye wastewater and the further potential application in electrochemical synthesis.