Electrosynthesis of persulfate and hydrogen gas with boron doped diamond as the anode material

Abstract: The efficiency of boron-doped diamond electrodes (BDD) has been investigated by electrolysis of an aqueous solution containing sodium sulfate. A Synthesis StarterKit from Condias was used, which contained the BDD anode with an active surface area of 3.14 cm2, and electrosynthesis was performed in a batch mode reactor. In this report, the electrooxidation of sodium sulfate to sodium persulfate is well reported. The production of persulfate was studied at different cell voltages and electrolyte concentrations. The amount of persulfate produced was determined by the iodometric titration and itwas found that its concentration in the electrolyte was directly proportional to the persulfate concentration, i.e, a larger amount of persulfate could be obtained when the electrolyte was highly concentrated, up to 1 M. For each of the samples the amount of persulfate that theoretically is possible to produce was calculated and subsequently compared to the actual amount of persulfate that was formed, ie. current efficiencies. These current efficiencies were unexpectedly low for all experiments except for one data point. Hydrogen gas was also produced as a by-product at the cathode, but it couldn ot be collected in the present setup. The results and some possible improvements are discussed in the report.