Electrochemical extraction of europium from molten fluoride media

Abstract

This work concerns the extraction of europium from molten fluoride media. Two electrochemical ways have been examined: (i) the use of a reactive cathode made of copper and (ii) the co-deposition with aluminium on inert electrode, leading to the formation of europium–copper and europium–aluminium alloys, respectively, as identified by SEM-EDS analysis. Cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry were used to identify the reduction pathway and to characterise the step of Cu–Eu and Al–Eu alloys formation. Then, electrochemical extractions using the two methodologies have been performed with extraction efficiency around 92% for copper electrode and 99.7% for co-reduction with aluminium ions.