Investigation of a novel pyrolusite particle electrode effects in the chlorine-containing wastewater

Research on three-dimensional electrode system mainly focuses on the material of plate electrode and catalytic activity, and minimal attention is provided to particle electrode. Pyrolusite was prepared as a novel particle electrode with high active chlorine (ACl) yield. The particle electrode was characterised by scanning electrode microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and electrochemical properties. Results show that the intended pyrolusite particle electrode was prepared successfully. These pyrolusite particle electrodes were applied to degrade sulphonated phenolic resin in chlorine-containing wastewater and displayed an excellent catalytic activity. A total of 68.76 mg/L ACl was produced, and the COD Cr removal rate was 49.55%. These results indicated that pyrolusite particle electrode is much more effective than the reference material, that is, granular activated carbon. Furthermore, the product of electrolytic process was characterised by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and ultraviolet visible spectrometry (UV-vis). The enhanced mechanism was proposed that the high degradation efficiency could be ascribed to the increase of ACl.