Preparation and Characterization of PbO2 Electrodes Prepared by Pulse Electrodeposition with Different Pulse Frequency

PbO2 electrodes were prepared by pulse electrodeposition in the lead nitrate plating solution. The surface morphology and phase structure of PbO2 electrodes with different pulse frequency were analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the increase of pulse frequency decreases the grain size of PbO2 electrodes and the electrodes become more compact. The linear sweep voltammogram curves show that PbO2 (10 Hz) electrodes possess highest oxygen evolution overpotential among these PbO2 electrodes prepared by pulse electrodeposition. The stability tests show that the service life of PbO2 (10 Hz) electrodes is 2 times longer than that of PbO2 electrode prepared by direct electrodeposition. The electrocatalytic activity of PbO2 electrodes with different pulse frequency was also examined for the electrochemical oxidation of methylene blue (MB) and good fitting was found using the relation for the pseudo-first order reaction. The bulk electrolysis shows that the PbO2 (10 Hz) electrodes exhibit the highest activity for the degradation of MB.