Electrochemical Formation of Nd Alloys Using Liquid Metal Electrodes in Molten LiCl–KCl Systems

Abstract

We focused on the liquid metals as the alloy diaphragms. Liquid metals have higher diffusion rates of elements than those of solid metals during the electrolysis. For the first step, in this work Sn electrodes were used as liquid metal electrodes. The alloy samples were prepared by potentiostatic electrolysis using liquid Sn electrodes in molten LiCl–KCl added DyCl3 (0.50 mol%) and NdCl3 (0.50 mol%) at 723 K. As the first step, electrochemical formation of RE–Sn (RE = Dy, Nd) alloys were investigated in LiCl–KCl eutectic melts containing DyCl3 (0.50 mol%) or NdCl3 (0.50 mol%). The samples of Nd–Sn alloys were prepared by potentiostatic electrolysis at 0.60, 0.70, 0.80, 1.00 V (vs. Li+/Li) for 0.50 h using liquid Sn electrodes in LiCl–KCl–NdCl3 (0.50 mol%) melts. The formation of Nd–Sn alloys were confirmed by the XRF analysis of all samples. Moreover, potentiostatic electrolysis were conducted at 0.60 and 0.70 V for 0.50 h in LiCl–KCl–DyCl3 (0.50 mol%)–NdCl3 (0.50 mol%) melts. The formation of Dy–Nd–Sn alloys were confirmed in the bottom portion of liquid Sn electrodes. The atomic ratios of Nd/Dy in both alloy samples were 3.50.