Ultra High Temperature Rare Earth Metal Extraction by Electrolysis
Name
TMS2015Manuscript_Nakanishi_Draft1_AAZEDits.pdf
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665.9 KB
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Checksum (MD5)
9ac5a2424ff40dce53eab1a2ec87fa64
Author(s)
Lambotte, Guillaume
Allanore, Antoine
Nakanishi, Bradley Rex
Date Issued
February 2015
Journal
Rare Metal Technology 2015
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Nakanishi, Bradley R., Guillaume Lambotte, and Antoine Allanore. “Ultra High Temperature Rare Earth Metal Extraction by Electrolysis.” Rare Metal Technology 2015 (February 20, 2015): 177–183.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Current industrial methods used for rare earth element (REE) extraction involve: 1) ore enrichment, 2) separation of rare earth oxides (REOs), 3) chlorination or hydrofluorination, and 4) individual electrowinning of REEs from a molten halide electrolyte. The complexity of REE extraction is inherited from their electronic configuration. Recently, molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) has been used to produce reactive metals directly from their oxides, e.g. titanium. As a single-step alternative to processes 3) and 4), or laboratory has investigated rare earth extraction by MOE. A key challenge is to find a molten electrolyte more stable than REOs. One possibility is to use binaries of REOs directly as a solvent. We have, therefore, developed two experimental approaches for studying molten REOs at temperatures exceeding 2200°C. The present work reports the most recent experimental results obtained with La[subscript 2]0[subscript 3]-Y[subscript 2]0[subscript 3]. Those promising results demonstrate potential for operating with molten REOs and refine the underlying materials challenge for electrodes to enable metal recovery.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119093244.ch20
