Performance Evaluation of Copper and German Silver Electrodes During Electrochemical Oxidation of Ametryn in Water

Abstract

The comparative electrocoagulation treatment was studied for the degradation and mineralization of ametryn in water using copper (CE) and German silver (GE) electrodes both in batch and continuous modes of operation. The operating variables such as the number of electrodes (2, 4), voltage (6, 12 V), current density (4–15 A/m2), initial concentration of ametryn (15, 20, 25 ppm), reaction time (0–120 min) and flow rate (0.5, 1, 1.5 Lph) were varied without changing the actual pH of the aqueous solution. The maximum removal of 80–85% of ametryn was achieved with a combination of 2 electrodes, 6 V, 1 Lph of flow rate and 80 min of reaction time. The copper electrode shows better performance than German silver electrodes, with less power consumption. The removal efficiency was decreased with increasing the initial concentration of ametryn and pH was gradually increased from 7–9.5. As the reaction proceeds, the pH was slowly increased in GE electrodes (7–9.6), which is more than in CE electrodes (7.8.6). The overall results revealed that CE and GE electrodes proved to be an alternative for other electrodes such as aluminum, iron and platinum. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.