Research Information System
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY, vol.224, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
The development of energy-efficient electrochemical systems capable of simultaneously treating complex industrial wastewaters and recovering hydrogen is of growing importance for sustainable process engineering. This study investigates the synthesis and application of Ag/TiO2 and TiO2 coated stainless-steel electrodes in a membrane-separated photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) system for the concurrent treatment of real pharmaceutical wastewater and green hydrogen production. The effects of key operational parameters, including pH, temperature, current density, and reaction time, were systematically optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The developed quadratic models exhibited strong statistical performance, with high coefficients of determination (R-2 = 0.9668-0.9925), low coefficients of variation (CV = 3.35-8.87%), and high adequate precision values (21.53-54.42), confirming model reliability and predictive capability. Among the evaluated electrode configurations, the Ag/TiO2-TiO2 anode system achieved the highest pollutant removal performance, reducing the normalized contaminant concentration (C/C-0) to similar to 0.05 within 60 min, corresponding to 98.88% COD and 99.90% color removal. On the cathodic side, Ag/TiO2 electrodes consistently outperformed undoped TiO2, yielding up to 16.1 mmol h(-1) of hydrogen, approximately 50% higher than TiO2 cathodes under optimized conditions. The enhanced hydrogen evolution was attributed to improved charge carrier separation and electron transfer facilitated by Ag incorporation. The influence of the real wastewater matrix on PEC performance further highlights the necessity of evaluating such systems under realistic operating conditions. The results demonstrate that Ag/TiO2 electrodes provide a viable platinum-free alternative for integrated wastewater detoxification and hydrogen recovery, supporting their potential for scalable PEC applications.