Influence of anode current density on carbon parasitic reactions during electrolysis

In the electro-deoxidation process,carbon parasitic reaction(CO_(3)^(2-)+4e–=C+3O^(2-))usually occurs when using carbon materials as the anode,which leads to increase of the carbon content in the final metal and decrease of the current efficiency of the process.The aim of this work is to reduce the negative effect of carbon parasitic reaction on the electrolysis process by adjusting anode current density.The results indicate that lower graphite anode area can achieve higher current density,which is helpful to increase the nucleation site of CO_(2) bubbles.Most of CO_(2) would be released from the anode instead of dissolution in the molten CaCl_(2) and reacting with O^(2-)to form CO_(3)^(2-),thus decreasing the carbon parasitic reaction of the process.Furthermore,the results of the compared experiments show that when the anode area decreases from 172.78 to 4.99 cm^(2),CO_(2) concentration in the released gases increases significantly,the carbon mass content in the final metal product decreased from 1.09%to 0.13%,and the current efficiency increased from 6.65%to 36.50%.This study determined a suitable anode current density range for reducing carbon parasitic reaction and provides a valuable reference for the selection of the anode in the electrolysis process.

Crystal Structure and Photocatalytic Characteristics of Nanoscate Sb-doped TiO_2 Thin Films

Nanoscale Sb doped titanium dioxide thin films photocatalyst （Ti1-xSbO2） were obtained from dip-coating sol-gel method. The influence of dopant Sb density on the crystal structure and the phase transformation of the thin tilms were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD） and Raman spectra. The results of XRD showed that as prepared lilms were not only in anatase state but also in brookite. The crystalline size was estimated to be around 13.3-20 nm. Raman spectra indicated there coexisted other phases and a transformation from brookite to anatase in the samples doped with 0.2% Sb. After doping a proper amount of Sb, the cryst,allization rate and the content of the anatase Ti1-x, SbO2 in the thin films was clearly enhanced because Sb replaced part. of the Ti of TiO2 in the thin films. The anode current density （photocurrent density） and the first order reaction speed constant （k） of t.hin films doped with 0.2% Sb reached 42.49 μA/cm^2 and 0.171 h/cm^2 under 254 nm UV illumination, respectively, which is about 11 times and 2 times that of the non doped TiO2 anode prepared by the same method respectively.