Abstract:
The electrochemical behaviors of SmCl
3 and SmCl
3-GaCl
3 on Mo cathode in LiCl-KCl molten salt were studied by cyclic voltammetry(CV), square wave voltammetry(SWV), and open circuit chronopotentiometry(OCP). The electrochemical results of SmCl
3 on Mo cathode show that Sm
3+ undergoes a single electron transfer reaction in the LiCl-KCl molten salt system, and can only be reduced to Sm
2+. The diffusion coefficient of Sm
3+ and apparent standard potential of Sm
3+/Sm
2+ at different temperatures were calculated. The co-deposition of SmCl
3 and GaCl
3 results indicate that Sm and Ga can form SmGax alloys. The phase of SmGa
2 that is obtained by electrolyzing of LiCl-KCl-SmCl
3-GaCl
3 at -1.600 V is confirmed by XRD and SEM&EDS. The results above reveal that on the addition of GaCl
3, Sm can be effectively extracted from the LiCl-KCl molten salt system.