Electrochemical oxidation of m-cresol purple dye in aqueous media

The present investigation showed that the indicator dye m -cresol purple ( m CP) was degraded in a laboratory scale, undivided electrolysis cell system. A platinum anode was used for generation of chlorine in the dye solution. The influence of supporting electrolyte, applied voltage, pH, initial dye concentration and temperature were studied. The ultraviolet-visible spectra of samples during the electrochemical oxidation showed rapid decolorization of the dye solution. During the electrochemical degradation process, dye concentration and current were measured to evaluate the energy consumption and current efficiency. After 10 minutes of electrolysis, a solution containing 20 mg/L m CP showed complete color removal at a supporting electrolyte concentration of 1 g/L NaCl, initial pH 6.7, temperature 25 °C and applied voltage 5 V; however, when pH was kept at 6.7, a higher rate constant was observed. There was good fit of the data to pseudo-first-order kinetics for dye removal in all experiments. Dependence of the decolorization rate on the initial m CP concentration can be described as r o α[ mCP ]o−0.98. The apparent activation energy for the electrochemical decolorization of m CP was determined to be −6.29 kJ/mol.