Morphological and Electrochemical Characterization of Ti/MxTiySnzO2 (M = Ir or Ru) Electrodes Prepared by the Polymeric Precursor Method

Abstract

This paper describes the effect of the composition of the oxide films on the properties of electrodes Ti/M x Ti y Sn z O 2 (M = Ir or Ru) prepared by the polymeric precursor method. XRD studies showed that the anodes are formed by solid solutions. The electrodes containing IrO 2 exhibit lower activity for the oxygen evolution reaction. The doping of the electrode surface with SnO 2 improves the catalytic properties of the anodes. However, it should be held in appropriate compositions, because the change in the atomic ratio of this element shows a marked effect on the stability of the oxides. Electrode Ti/Ir 0.2 Ti 0.3 Sn 0.5 O 2 has lower lifetime, i.e. 6 hours. The 20% decrease in the stoichiometric amount of SnO 2 increases the time to a value above 70 hours, as observed for Ti/Ir 0.3 Ti 0.4 Sn 0.3 O 2 . Electrode Ti/Ru 0.3 Ti 0.4 Sn 0.3 O 2 shows lifetime of 11 hours; therefore IrO 2 is more stable than RuO 2 under the conditions investigated. These results suggest that electrode Ti/Ir 0.3 Ti 0.4 Sn 0.3 O 2 is promising for different applications, such as water electrolysis, capacitors and organic electrosynthesis.