Electrochemical behavior of cerium(III) in NaCl–KCl molten salt

This work presented the electrochemical study of cerium(III) on the insert electrode (Mo) in NaCl–KCl molten salt in the temperature range 954–1,007 K. The electrochemical methods such as cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry were used for investigating the reduction of Ce(III). The results obtained showed that CeCl3 could be reduced into cerium metal in a quasi-reversible one-step process exchanging three electrons (Ce(III)+3e → Ce(0)) at the operating temperatures on a molybdenum cathode. The diffusion coefficients of Ce(III) ions at different temperatures were determined by cyclic voltammetry. The validity of the Arrhenius law was also verified and the activation energy for diffusion was found to be 46.0 kJ mol−1. The apparent standard potentials of the redox couple (Ce(III)/Ce(0)) at several temperatures was calculated. The thermodynamic properties of cerium trichloride have also been investigated.