Why Ruthenium Oxide Coating Titanium Anode is Used in Chlorine Evolution Reaction

Why Ruthenium Oxide Coating Titanium Anode is Used in Chlorine Evolution Reaction(CER)?

Due to considerable electrocatalytic activity in the chlorine evolution reaction (CER), ruthenium oxide based electroactive coatings on titanium substrate are used as anodes for the industrial production of chlorine and chlorates.

Ruthenium oxide is one of the most active electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) since the overpotentials are almost half of that registered on platinum. The coatings are of good catalytic properties for many other electrochemical processes. They have also excellent capacitive characteristics owing to the pseudocapacitive behavior, which makes them applicable in the field of electrochemical supercapacitors.

The properties of ruthenium oxide and the electrochemical behavior of anodic oxide coatings depend on the oxide preparation procedure and the method of coating formation.  Electrocatalytic properties and stability of activated titanium anodes can be significantly improved if the active coating is prepared by a sol–gel procedure, as an alternative to the commonly used preparation procedure that involves thermal decomposition of metal chlorides.

An activated titanium anode, RuO2 /Ti, was prepared by an alkoxide sol–gel procedure, it improves the properties of activated titanium anodes from oxide colloidal dispersions which prepared by forced hydrolysis of metal chlorides in acid solution. It was assigned to the homogeneous distribution of fine oxide particles, i.e. to the larger real surface area of such a coating in comparison to that obtained by thermal decomposition.