Controllable preparation of antimony powders by electrodeposition in choline chloride-ethylene glycol

Abstract

Antimony powders with different morphologies have been prepared by electrodeposition at 313–353 K and 10–50 mA·cm−2 in 0.1 mol·L−1 SbCl3 + ChCl-EG solution. The electrochemical behavior of Sb(III) on titanium electrode are studied by cyclic voltammetry. Results show that the electrochemical reduction of Sb(III) in SbCl3 + ChCl-EG solution is a quasi-reversible process via a one-step reaction and the apparent activation energy is 50.723 kJ·mol−1. The effects of current density and temperature on current efficiency and specific energy consumption are also investigated. The current efficiency increases with the increasing of current density and temperature. The specific energy consumption increased with the increase of current density, while decreased with the raising of temperature. When the current density is 40 mA·cm−2 at 353 K, the current efficiency and specific energy consumption are up to 97.89% and 1251.277 kW·h·t−1, respectively. The morphology and phase of the products are analyzed by FESEM and XRD. It demonstrates that the deposition products are pure antimony powders and their preferred crystal plane is (0 1 2). The pineal, wheat grain, badminton, dendritic, and cluster-like antimony powders can be prepared by controlling electrodeposition parameters. The particles size range of antimony powders are 0.21–261.05 μm.