Titanium Electrode for Water Disinfection

Chlorine has been one of the most widely used disinfectants for sanitization. It kills pathogens such as bacteria and viruses by breaking the chemical bonds in their molecules. Compared to traditional laborious method by adding chemical disinfectants into the water, electrochlorination processing has been recognized as a convenient and highly efficient way for water disinfection. And the disinfecting effect can be adjusted according to the on-site demand. This technique is widely applied in germ-free water supplies, wastewater treatment, swiming pool sterilization, etc.

In most practical applications, hypochlorous acid (HClO) and/or hypochlorite (NaClO) are produced via the electrolysis of salty water (NaCl) by passing an electric current through perforated or unperforated plate electrodes inserted into the reactor pipe.

Very great differences have been found in the efficiency of free chlorine production between different electrode materials. It can be seen that titanium electrodes (using active coatings of IrO2 or IrO2/RuO2) outperform boron-doped diamond and platinum electrodes, which are
therefore not generally applicable as anode materials with very low production efficiency for free chlorine.