An electrolyte-free system for ozone generation using heavily boron-doped diamond electrodes

Abstract

An electrolyte-free system for electrochemical ozone generation was developed using boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes as the anode and cathodes in combination with Nafion® N117/H+ as the separating membrane. Trials using BDD with various B/C ratios suggested that heavily boron-doped BDD with sp2 impurities yielded high concentration of ozone. Further experiments by replacement of the feedstock solutions with 0.85 M Na2SO4 or 0.85 M NaCl resulted in no significant difference, suggesting that the use of pure water as the feedstock is the most appropriate method for ozone production. A high efficiency could be achieved by applying water as a feedstock for the anode and the cathode chambers. In addition, comparison with Pt electrodes confirmed that the excellent structural stability of BDD was the main factor contributing to this success.