Effect of sintering temperature on the electrolysis of TiO₂

Ze-quan Li 1,2) , Li-yue Ru 1) , Cheng-guang Bai 2) , Na Zhang 1) , and Hai-hua Wang 1) 1) College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China 2) College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

摘 要：The effects of sintering temperature on the microstructure and the conductivity of TiO 2 cathodes were studied by examining the phase composition, microstructure, and element contents of the sintered cathodes and the cathodic products using X-ray diffraction and scan-ning electronic microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometry. The oxygen vacancy, conductivity, average pore diameter, and specific surface area of the sintered cathodes were detected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, four-point probe, and ASPA 2010. The results showed that TiO 2 phase transformations occurred, and oxygen vacancies formed with the increase of sintering temperature. The cathodic conductivity improved, but the average pore diameter and the effective response area of the TiO 2 cathode were reduced when the sintering temperature increased. These phenomena could weaken the contact between reaction ions and electrons and also had the same effect on the cathodes and the molten salt. Moreover, they were disadvantageous to ion migration, so a lower sintering temperature was favorable for the microstructure of electrolysis. Consequently, the cathodic conductivity may be improved, but the microstructure became compact with the increase of sintering temperature. The cathodic products at different temperatures indicated that the cathodic conductivity was more important for electrolysis.

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