Electrochemical Investigation of Molten Lanthanum-Yttrium Oxide for Selective Liquid Rare-Earth Metal Extraction
Name
Nakanishi_2019_J._Electrochem._Soc._166_E420.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.04 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
05e73a74bb493ebe7c9635ca3eeadc19
Author(s)
Nakanishi, Bradley Rex
Allanore, Antoine
Date Issued
September 2019
Journal
Journal of The Electrochemical Society
Publisher
The Electrochemical Society
Citation
Nakanishi, Bradley R. and Antoine Allanore. “Electrochemical Investigation of Molten Lanthanum-Yttrium Oxide for Selective Liquid Rare-Earth Metal Extraction.” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 166, 13 (September 2019): E420-E428 © 2019 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The electrochemical separation of lanthanum from yttrium as liquid metal is investigated starting from their molten mixture as sesquioxides, La2O3 and Y2O3, at temperature in excess of 2500K. Using iridium electrodes, a combination of dc and ac electrochemical methods and a thermal imaging furnace, the selectivity for liquid rare-earth metal recovery is evaluated for 6 compositions across the pseudo-binary La2O3 - Y2O3. Departure from the thermodynamic predictions based on ideal mixture for the molten rare-earth oxides and their alloy is experimentally demonstrated, with selectivity several order of magnitude different than the standard state predictions. A critical assessment of a possible model for the thermodynamic of mixing is presented to describe the non-ideal mixing behavior for the pseudo-binary La2O3 - Y2O3. The selective enrichment observed using molten rare-earth electrolysis suggests a possible new approach for direct, selective, REE separation and recovery.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials Research Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1141913JES
