A research team led by Jang Tae Il, a researcher at the Nano Physics Engineering Institute, has developed an ozonated water generator by water electrolysis.
Ozone has widely been applied to wastewater treatment and drinking water disinfection due to its significant oxidative property. Especially, O3 dissolved water, ozonated water, is used as a disinfector. There are two methods to produce ozonated water: dissolving gas phase ozone in water and on-site generation by water electrolysis. The advantage of water ozonation by water electrolysis is higher concentration of ozone than other methods.
To make an ozonated water generator by water electrolysis, they developed a nanocomposite catalyst whose ozone evolution efficiency is significant, and determined the factors that affect the efficiency.
The generator consists of an electrolytic device and a power supply unit.
The electrolytic device is a couple of electrodes where an anode and a cathode are spaced. When it is immersed in a water tank and connected to the power source, ozone, oxygen and hydrogen are evolved. Here, α-PbO2, F-doped β-PbO2 and graphene electrodeposited on the stainless steel mesh are used as an anode, and a pristine stainless steel mesh as a cathode.
Galvanostatic switching power supply is used as a power source.
They determined various factors such as an electrode gap, the temperature of electrolyte, current density, kinds of ions in tap water, etc. affecting the ozone evolution by water electrolysis, and they guaranteed generation of up to above 15mg/L of dissolved ozone concentration of ozonated water at the optimum operating condition.
This technology will widely be used in various fields such as wastewater treatment and disinfection for prevention.
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