Engineering Iron‐Dopped Titanium Oxide as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Degradation of Rhodamine B

ABSTRACT

Rhodamine B (RhB), as the aromatic organics is a persistent dye that is challenging to degrade and poses a significant risk of inducing drug‐resistant bacteria. Electrocatalysis has emerged as an effective method for the removal of RhB from dye wastewater. Titanium dioxide (TiO ₂ ) is widely utilized in catalytic and photoelectric applications due to its high oxidation activity, excellent photoelectric performance, and straightforward preparation process. To address the issue of insufficient catalytic activity in TiO ₂ ‐based electrooxidation anode materials, herein, we develop an Fe dopped TiO ₂ electrocatalyst and inspect the impact of the Ti/Fe ratio on the degradation performance for RhB. The results indicate that the incorporation of Fe in TiO ₂ electrocatalyst significantly enhances the capacity for generating active species OH, thereby improving the degradation performance. Specifically, under the reaction conditions of an electrolyte concentration of 1 M Na ₂ SO ₄ , a current density of 20 mA·cm ⁻² , a pH of 7, and a pollutant concentration of 5 ppm, the Fe─TiO ₂ catalyst achieves a RhB degradation rate of 89%, with·OH identified as the primary active species. Compared to pure TiO ₂ , the doping of Fe significantly boosts the electrocatalytic degradation efficiency of TiO ₂ for RhB.