Synthesis and characterisation of PbO2-SnO2 composite on a stainless steel substrate

Abstract

A PbO₂-SnO₂ composite was successfully synthesised by cyclic voltammetry (CV) on stainless steel (SS) substrate in an electrolyte containing 0.5 M Pb(NO₃)₂, 0.1 M HNO₃, 0.05 M Cu(NO₃)₂ , 0.1 M C₂H₆O₂, and SnO₂ with concentrations ranging from 500 to 2500 mg/l. This composite exhibited the best electrochemical properties when the SnO₂ concentration in the solution was 1500 mg/l. The surface morphology and elemental composition of the composite were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The electrochemical properties of the SS/PbO₂-SnO₂ electrode were investigated in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ using CV and potentiodynamic polarisation I-E methods. The obtained SS/PbO₂-SnO₂ composite electrode was used as an anode for the electrochemical removal of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution under suitable conditions with different treatment times. The removal efficiency of MO was high, exceeding 90% after 30 minutes of treatment. The kinetics of MO removal followed a first-order reaction model with a linearity of R²=0.9736.