ELECTROCHEMICAL BEHAVIOURS OF LANTHANIDE FLUORIDES IN THE ELECTROLYSIS SYSTEM WITH LiF-NaF-KF SALT
As a part of partitioning studies, the experiments of cyclic voltammetry and electrolytic reduction with the liquid bismuth cathode were conducted to investigate electrochemical behaviours of lanthanide elements in the electrorefining system employing LiF-NaF-KF eutectic salt as the electrolyte. The cyclic voltammograms for NdF3 and GdF3 were obtained at various potential scan rates, respectively. The cathodic and anodic peak currents of the elements increased in proportion to the square root of the potential scan rate. According to changes of the potential difference between the coupled cathodic and anodic peaks, reversibilities of the reduction-oxidation reactions in this system were evaluated. In addition, further behaviours of electrochemical reaction of the elements were examined through electrolytic tests of the system using liquid bismuth as the cathode at fixed current densities.
Molten Salt Techniques
This fourth volume in the series opens some new arenas in the realm of molten salts technology, with research reports on amides, amide mixtures, and their electrochemical properties; chromatography in liquid organic salts; thermal conductivity; magnetic, calorimetric, and ultra-high-pressure measure
Automated Admittance Spectroscopy of the Semiconductor/Molten Salt Electrolyte Interface
The efficacy of semiconductor/electrolyte junctions and, in particular, semiconductor/molten salt interfaces for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical applications is critically dependent on how well processes at the interface (e.g., charge transfer, carrier recombination, specific ion adsorption) can be controlled. Use of the term “interface” herein is made with the implicit recognition that the boundary between the two phases is not sharp but several A thick. Development of measurement techniques and physical models for characterizing these interfacial processes, therefore, is of particular value in designing and optimizing an efficient solar conversion system. Equivalent circuit representations are useful in delineating each individual electrophysical (e.g., charge accumulation) or electrochemical (e.g., faradaic charge transfer) process in the system and their interrelationships in terms of an overall electrical network. Identification of individual circuit elements comprising the overall network is readily accomplished by impedance or admittance measurements. Such measurements have been traditionally employed in kinetics studies of electrochemical charge transfer across the electrode/electrolyte interface (cf. Refs. 1 and 2). Less attention has been devoted to electrophysical aspects of the interface. In this chapter, models will be developed whereby individual circuit elements comprising a semiconductor/electrolyte junction may be resolved by automated admittance measurements. The treatment is specific to the molten salt electrolyte case, although extrapolation to aqueous electrolyte situations and the general case of electrode/electrolyte interfaces is fairly straightforward.