Doped diamond - a new material for industrial electrochemistry

In the last years doped diamond thin film electrodes have been studied intensively with regard to industrial applications. The most important proofed properties of the diamond electrodes for electrochemical applications are the unique chemical inertness, the widest known electrochemical window before water decomposition takes place and the possibility to use diamond electrodes as anode as well as cathode. Additonally, the investigations with diamond electrodes revealed a high efficiency in a variety of electrochemical processes, exceeding that of conventional electrodes considerably. Due to these outstanding properties there is a strongly increasing demand for diamond electrodes for water treatment, electochemical synthesis and electroplating. DiaChem electrodes are produced by large area hot-filament activated diamond chemical vapour deposition (GFCVD) on industrial electrode materials with different geometries on areas up to 50 cm x 100 cm. Doping levels from 50 ppm up to some thousand ppm of boron have been realized using B2H6 or TMB, respectively. The DiaChem electrodes have been characterized with regard to their material and electrochemical properties as well as their potential for use in industrial electrochemical processes.