Author(s)

Moisés I. Salazar-Gastélum, Edgar A. Reynoso-Soto, Shui W. Lin, Sergio Perez-Sicairos, Rosa M. Félix-Navarro

Ingeniería en Nanotecnología, Centro de Graduados e Investigación en Química del Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, Tijuana, México.

In this paper we report the results of our experimental work conducted to decoloration of a well-known highly toxic Amaranth dye by electrochemical and photoelectrochemical methods. Throughout this investigation were used two different Dimensional Stable Anode (DSA) electrodes, namely, IrO₂-Ru₂O-SnO₂-TiO₂/Ti and Ru₂O-SnO₂-TiO₂/Ti. The experimental results show that IrO₂-Ru₂O-SnO₂-TiO₂/Ti electrode has higher performance on amaranth decoloration than Ru₂O-SnO₂-TiO₂/Ti electrode, but with the disadvantage of higher energy consumption. For higher degradation of Amaranth dye with both DSA electrodes, the process was carried out via photoelectrochemical method. Our experimental results clearly shown the decrease in absorbance of all UV-Vis peaks due to the mineralization of the azo dye; also, it was noteworthy photoelectrochemical process consumes less energy under the same experimental conditions than electrochemical process. The IrO₂-Ru₂O-SnO₂-TiO₂/Ti electrode reaches a higher degradation degree of Amaranth solutions than Ru₂O-SnO₂-TiO₂/Ti electrode using a photoelectrochemical technique.

Photoelectrochemical; Decoloration; DSA, Azo; Amaranth Dye

M. Salazar-Gastélum, E. Reynoso-Soto, S. Lin, S. Perez-Sicairos and R. Félix-Navarro, "Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Decoloration of Amaranth Dye Azo Using Composited Dimensional Stable Anodes," Journal of Environmental Protection, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2013, pp. 136-143. doi: 10.4236/jep.2013.41016.