Abstract
A highly stable solvate ionic liquid comprising a 2:1 (mol/mol) mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and AlCl3 was used for near room-temperature electrochemical codeposition of an Al-Nd alloy using chlorides as precursors. This liquid is low-cost, easy to prepare, and has high electrochemical stability. The ionic structure was analyzed by 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance; Raman spectroscopy and the dissolution phenomenon was studied by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The dissolution mechanism of NdCl3 in this solvate ionic liquid was derived as 3[AlCl2(EC)n]+ + 2NdCl3 ⇆ 2Nd(III) + 3[AlCl4]− + 3nEC. Cyclic voltammetry was used to explore the electrochemical behavior of Nd- and Al-containing species, revealing that the reduction of Al and Nd are both one-step electron-gaining processes. X-ray diffraction confirmed that an Al-Nd alloy can be obtained in the form of thermally stable Al2Nd by potentiostatic electrolysis at high cathode overpotential (− 3.5 V vs. Al). Although the deposited alloy layer is not dense, Al-containing solvate ILs have immense potential in green electrometallurgy because of their higher tunability and similar properties to ILs.
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