Preparation of insoluble Ti/IrO₂/MoS₂ anodes by electrodeposition and its application in electrolytic copper foil

Dimensionally stable anodes (DSAs) offer great advantages as insoluble anodes for electrolytic copper foils. Titanium-based iridium dioxide electrode has low oxygen evolution potential, which can reduce energy consumption in industrial production. In view of the excellent oxygen evolution performance of MoS₂ in alkaline environment, molybdenum disulfide is considered to be loaded on Ti/IrO₂ electrode by electrodeposition to improve the oxygen evolution efficiency of electrolytic copper foil anode in copper sulfate. The structure of the composite anode was characterized using surface analysis techniques such as XRD and SEM. The results manifested that the surface of the anode was shallower and had fewer pits, which effectively improved the microscopic morphology of the Ti/IrO₂/MoS₂. The oxygen evolution potential of Ti/IrO₂/MoS₂ composite anode determined by oxygen evolution polarization curve (LSV) was 1.25 V, which was lower than that of commercially available Ti/IrO₂-Ta₂O₅ anodes and had the largest oxygen evolution active surface area. In addition, the experiment with the electrolytic copper foil using the Ti/IrO₂/MoS₂ anode revealed that the surface flatness of the copper foil was high and the average grain size was 32 nm, which further confirmed that the application of the Ti/IrO₂/MoS₂ anode in the electrolytic copper foil area can lessen the slot voltage and save cost.