Evaluation of alkali bromide salts for potential pyrochemical applications

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:22264121

Tripathy, P. K.; Gutknecht, T. Y.; Herrmann, S. D.; Fredrickson, G. L. ^[1]; Lister, T. E. ^[2]

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1. Separations Department, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls 83415-6190 (United States)
2. Biological and Chemical Processing Department, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls 83415-6180 (United States)

Transient techniques were employed to study the electrochemical behavior, reduction mechanism and transport properties of REBr{sub 3} (RE - La, Nd and Gd) in pure LiBr, LiBr-KBr (eutectic) and LiBr-KBr-CsBr (eutectic) melts. Gd(III) showed a reversible single step soluble-insoluble exchange phenomenon in LiBr melt at 973 K. Although La (III), Nd(III) and Gd(III) ions showed reversible behavior in eutectic LiBr-KBr melts, these ions showed a combination of temperature dependent reversible and pseudo-reversible behavior. While both La(III) and Gd(III) showed one step reduction, the reduction of Nd(III) was observed to be a two step process. La metal could be electrodeposited from the ternary electrolyte at a temperature of 673 K. Various electrochemical measurements suggest that both binary and ternary bromide melts can potentially be used to electro-deposit high purity RE metals at comparatively lower operating temperatures. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22264121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
CESIUM BROMIDES
ELECTRODEPOSITION
ELECTROLYTES
EVALUATION
IMPURITIES
LITHIUM BROMIDES
METALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
POTASSIUM BROMIDES
SALTS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE