Co-Reduction Behavior of Ce (III), Al (III) and Ga (III) on a W Electrode: An Exploration for Liquid Binary Al-Ga Cathode

Abstract

It is well known that searching for electrode materials with high Ln/An separation efficiency in molten salt based electrorefining has been a big challenge. Both Al and Ga have exhibited excellent performance, respectively, for the Ln/An separation based on molten salt electrolysis. Therefore, in this work, the electrochemical behavior of Ce (III) on the binary Al-Ga alloy electrode was systematically explored by co-reduction of Ce (III), Al (III) and Ga (III) on a W electrode. The results showed that different kinds of alloys are formed on the surface of W electrode. In addition, several typical Ga-Ce and Al-Ga-Ce intermetallic compounds were obtained by potentiostatic electrolysis and the deposited products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). It was found that ternary intermetallic compound Al2Ga2Ce and binary Ga2Ce and Ga6Ce were identified. Acknowledgments The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science foundation of China (11675044, 21790373, 21876034 and 11875116), and the International Exchange Program of Harbin Engineering University for Innovation−oriented Talents Cultivation.