Preparation of Tungsten Nanoparticles from Spent Tungsten Carbide by Molten Salt Electrolysis

Abstract

Tungsten carbide was used as sacrificial anode in NaCl-KCl molten salt to form tungsten ion dissolution, with increasing anode potential of the charge transfer resistance decreases, tungsten ions in molten salt of average valence of +6, reduction of tungsten ion for the reversible behavior of diffusion control. Increasing the cathode distance and changing the cathode position can effectively avoid the pollution of the anode residual carbon to the tungsten powder of cathode products. The particle size of tungsten powder increases with the increase of cathode current density. When the cathode current density is 0.01Acm-2, anode potential 1.2V and anode cathode spacing 45mm, the particle size of tungsten powder is about 50nm.