Electrochemical Oxidation of Ethinylestradiol on a Commercial Ti/Ru0.3 Ti0.7O2 DSA Electrode

The electrochemical oxidation of the hormone ethinylestradiol in an aqueous-methanolic medium by the application of a constant current of 40 mA cm−2 in a flow cell with a commercial Ti/Ru0.3 Ti0.7O2 electrode was evaluated. The effect caused by the use of NaCl as a support electrolyte was also investigated. Hence, HPLC-UV analyses revealed that ethinylestradiol was almost totally consumed after a 60 min reaction time in the presence of NaCl. Conversely, much lower degradation rates were obtained when NaCl was not employed. Moreover, direct infusion ESI-MS and GC-MS analysis revealed that apparently no degradation products had been formed under these conditions. Hence, this study clearly demonstrated that such electrochemical treatment can be efficiently used to promote the complete degradation (and probably mineralization) of the hormone ethinylestradiol.

Application of Electrocatalytic Technique to Degrade the Color of Tea Wastewater

The color elimination of real tea wastewater by the electrocatalytic system was investigated. The electrocatalytic system composed IrO2 electrode as the anode and DSA electrode as the cathode under the current density of 40 mA cm-2. Various concentrations of NaCl and wastewater volumes were tested to understand their effects. For the effect of NaCl addition, the color removal efficiency increased 25% under the condition of NaCl addition. The relatively proper operation was 0.25 M NaCl and 1.0 liter wastewater, which caused the color removal efficiency up to 85%. Based on this color removal efficiency, the tea wastewater of 1.0 L consumed the electricity of 0.03KWh.