Boron-doped Diamond (bdd) Electrodes for Wastewater Treatment

Boron-Doped Diamond (BDD) Electrodes For Wastewater Treatment

Boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes have high O2 overpotential, make them better suited for the direct oxidation of contaminants than metal oxide anodes. The high activity of the BDD anode toward organics oxidation has been explained by the presence of weakly adsorbed •OH formed by water electrolysis at the anode surface. In addition to oxidizing organic contaminants, BDD anodes can generate ozone, H2O2, as well as ferrate. BDD can also produce peroxydicarbonate, peroxydiphosphate and peroxydisulfate in the presence of carbonate, phosphate, and sulfate ions, respectively.

Despite these attractive features, BDD is a semi-conductor doped material and usually is not considered as a typical electrode material for electrochemical applications. Therefore, some points should be considered when this material is used as the working electrode for electroanalytical applications.

The main impediment to large-scale application of BDD electrodes is the high cost of the substrate onto which the BDD film is deposited (Nb, W, Ta) and its poor mechanical strength in the case of Si substrate. In addition, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) manufacturing of synthetic diamonds is still limited to small-scale production. The price of conductive diamond electrodes is currently about ten times higher than that of MMO electrodes.