Electrolysis electrode featuring metal-doped nanotube array and methods of manufacture and using same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11028491-B2
Application number	US-201816102576-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 13, 2018
Priority date	Aug 14, 2017
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

An electrolysis electrode includes a metal-doped array of nanotubes formed on a substrate. The nanotube array (NTA) may be a stabilized metal-doped black TiO2 NTA formed on a titanium substrate, and the metal dopant may include any suitable metal, for example, cobalt. The metal dopant improves the reactivity of the electrode and enhances its service life. The metal-doped NTA electrode may provide improved chlorine evolution and/or oxygen evolution activity for electrochemical wastewater treatment. The electrode may also be useful for water splitting applications. Increasing the loading of the metal dopant may lead to the formation of a metal oxide layer on top of the NTA, which improves oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotential.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrolysis electrode, comprising:
a substrate; and
cobalt-doped black TiO 2 nanotube array contacting the substrate.

2. The electrode of claim 1 , further comprising a metal oxide film on top of the nanotube array.

3. The electrode of claim 1 , wherein the cobalt included in the cobalt-doped black TiO 2 nanotube array has a loading of less than 5 μmol/cm 2 .

4. The electrode of claim 3 , wherein the cobalt included in the cobalt-doped black TiO 2 nanotube array has a loading between about 0.17 μmol/cm 2 and 0.54 μmol/cm 2 .

5. The electrode of claim 1 , wherein the amount of cobalt included in the cobalt-doped black TiO 2 nanotube array is tuned to a predetermined amount based on the application of the electrode.

6. The electrode of claim 1 , wherein the substrate includes titanium.

7. A water processing system, comprising:
the electrode of claim 1 , configured to be, at least in part, in direct contact with water.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising a second electrode.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the second electrode includes a second substrate, and a metal-doped nanotube array contacting the second substrate.

10. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a voltage source connected to the electrode and a second electrode configured to contact the water;
wherein the voltage source is configured to switch polarity at a predetermined frequency so that the electrode operates as either an anode or a cathode based on the polarity of the voltage source.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the substrate includes titanium.

Assignees

• California Inst Of Techn

Inventors

• Hoffmann Michael R
• Yang Yang

Classifications

• C25B11/069

  consisting of at least one single element and at least one compound; consisting of two or more compounds · CPC title

• C01G23/047 Primary

  Titanium dioxide · CPC title

• Y02W10/37

  using solar energy · CPC title

• C01P2004/13

  Nanotubes · CPC title

• C01P2006/10

  Solid density · CPC title