Electrochemical Oxidation of Tetracaine Hydrochloride using a Transition Metal Doped PbO₂ Electrode

摘要

Pharmaceutical wastewater is a kind of biorefractory organic wastewater and could not be treatedefficiently by the traditional biological wastewater process with the ever-increasing discharge standard.This work prepared Al/Zn doped PbO2 anodes and used them to treat tetracaine hydrochloride byelectrochemical oxidation process. The effects of operational factors, such as current density, initialconcentration of tetracaine hydrochloride and the initial value of pH, were explored and discussed. Theresults showed that the electrochemical oxidation using Al/Zn doped PbO2 electrode is an effectivesolution to treat this kind of wastewater. And the removal efficiency of tetracaine hydrochloride andCOD were above 97.35% and 59.56% after 120 min at typical condition. The degradation mechanismwas analyzed and the reaction mechanism was discussed by the free radical reaction mechanism ofdirect oxidation and indirect oxidation. This paper could provide basic data of electrochemicaloxidation for the tetracaine hydrochloride and other pharmaceutical wastewater pollution control.