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Electrocatalytic performance of PbO2 films in the degradation of dimethoate insecticide


O Dridi Gargouri
Y Samet
R Abdelhedi

Abstract

This study was performed to find the best experimental conditions for the electrochemical removal of the insecticide dimethoate (C5H12NO3PS2) from aqueous solutions using a lead dioxide niobium anode. The process was studied under galvanostatic polarisation mode. The influence of applied current density (10–50 mA·cm–2), initial chemical oxygen demand COD0 (100–550 mg·ℓ–1), temperature (30–70°C) and pH (3–11) on COD and instantaneous current efficiency (ICE) was studied. The results showed that almost 90% of COD removal was achieved under optimal experimental conditions, indicating that electrochemical oxidation on a PbO2 anode is a suitable method for treatment of water polluted with dimethoate. It was found that the decay of COD generally followed a pseudo first-order kinetic and the oxidation rate was favoured by increasing the applied current density, temperature, pH and initial COD. The greatest COD removal (90%) was obtained when using an applied current density of 50 mA·cm–2, COD0 = 320 mg·ℓ–1, pH = 11, T = 70°C and electrolysis time = 8 h.

Keywords: Electrochemical degradation; hydroxyl radicals; organic pollutants; lead dioxide; wastewater


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eISSN: 1816-7950
print ISSN: 0378-4738