Electrochemical separation of cerium and lanthanum based on investigation of their cathodic behaviors in LiCl-KCl melt
Pyrochemical process for recycling spent metallic nuclear fuel, which is mainly conducted in molten salts, has attracted widely interests due to its obvious minimization of costs and waste outputs. As a simulate case, the electrochemical properties of Ce (III) and La(III) on molybdenum were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP) in LiCl-KCl melt at 773 K. And the influence of cathodic potential on the separation of cerium and lanthanum was also studied. The results showed that Ce3+ and La3+ were reduced by a single step mechanism under diffusion control. The diffusion coefficients of Ce3+ and La3+ deduced by CVs were 0.92×10-5 and 1.04×10-5 cm2/s, deduced by CP were 1.11×10-5 and 1.51×10-5 cm2/s, respectively. With the working potential shifted positively, the separation factor increased quickly. Though their reduction potentials were very close, a product with a purity of 99.7％ was obtained from a feed in which the mole ratio of Ce:La was 20:1 by holding the cathodic potential at -2.2 V (vs. Ag/AgCl 2 mol.％).
cerium lanthanum molten LiCl-KCl electrochemical separation
YUAN Zhongwei WANG Dihua ZHANG Yu TANG Diyong YIN Huayi ZHANG Shengdong ZHU Hua YAN Taihong GAN Fuxing ZHENG Weifang
Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing 102413, China School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
国际会议
The 3rd Asian Conference on Molten Salts and Ions Liquids 2011(第三届亚洲熔盐与离子液体会议)
哈尔滨
英文
59-62
2011-01-06（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）