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Korean Radioactive Waste Society (한국방사성폐기물학회)
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Electrochemical Behavior of Sm(III) on the Aluminium-Gallium Alloy Electrode in LiCl-KCl Eutectic

  • Ye, Chang-Mei (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Jiang, Shi-Lin (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Liu, Ya-Lan (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Xu, Kai (Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Yang, Shao-Hua (Jiangxi University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Chang, Ke-Ke (Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Ren, Hao (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Chai, Zhi-Fang (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Shi, Wei-Qun (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Received : 2020.11.11
  • Accepted : 2021.01.18
  • Published : 2021.06.30
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Abstract

In this study, the electrochemical behavior of Sm on the binary liquid Al-Ga cathode in the LiCl-KCl molten salt system is investigated. First, the co-reduction process of Sm(III)-Al(III), Sm(III)-Ga(III), and Sm(III)-Ga(III)-Al(III) on the W electrode (inert) were studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV), square-wave voltammetry (SWV) and open circuit potential (OCP) methods, respectively. It was identified that Sm(III) can be co-reduced with Al(III) or Ga(III) to form AlzSmy or GaxSmy intermetallic compounds. Subsequently, the under-potential deposition of Sm(III) at the Al, Ga, and Al-Ga active cathode was performed to confirm the formation of Sm-based intermetallic compounds. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analyses indicated that Ga3Sm and Ga6Sm intermetallic compounds were formed on the Mo grid electrode (inert) during the potentiostatic electrolysis in LiCl-KCl-SmCl3-AlCl3-GaCl3 melt, while only Ga6Sm intermetallic compound was generated on the Al-Ga alloy electrode during the galvanostatic electrolysis in LiCl-KCl-SmCl3 melt. The electrolysis results revealed that the interaction between Sm and Ga was predominant in the Al-Ga alloy electrode, with Al only acting as an additive to lower the melting point.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21790373), and the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51604252), and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Processing for Non-ferrous Metallic and Featured Materials (Grant No. GXYSOF1815).

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