The Characters of Diamond Coated Electrodes in Electrochemical Process

The Characters of Diamond Coated Electrodes in Electrochemical Process

The most important electrochemical properties of diamond coated electrodes are the very high corrosion stability in electrochemical applications and the extremely high overvoltage for water electrolysis, providing the possibility of producing strong oxidizing solutions with extremely high efficiency.

Boron doped diamond films have been deposited on silicon, siliconcarbide, and different industrial electrode materials, like niobium, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, zirconium, and graphite.  Diamond coated electrodes may be produced on a variety of base materials and geometries for many processes in sufficient quantities.

Diamond coated electrodes are chemically, mechanically, and thermally very resistant and show no significant corrosion even under high electrochemical load. Its electrochemical activity remains constant in contrast to other conventional carbon electrodes: as diamond electrodes are both stable as anodes and cathodes, it is possible to reverse polarity in order to prevent limestone build-up on the electrode surface from calcium and magnesium ions in water.

These electrodes show high overpotentials for water electrolysis (hydrogen, as well as oxygen evolution) and present no surface redox processes as known from other carbon electrodes. It can produce hydroxyl radicals with high efficiency, capable of oxidizing organics completely to carbon dioxide. Depending on the presence of other reactants in aqueous solutions different species with a high oxidizing potential could also be produced. All of these reactants contribute to the complete, indirect oxidation of pollutants.