Electrochemical behaviour of curium(III) ions in fused 3LiCl–2KCl eutectic

Abstract This work presents the electrochemical study of Cm(III) in fused 3LiCl–2KCl eutectic in the temperature range 723–923 K. Transient electrochemical techniques such as cyclic, square wave voltammetries, and chronopotentiometry have been used in order to investigate the reduction mechanism of curium ions up to metal. The results obtained show that the reduction reaction takes place in a single step Cm ( III ) + 3 e ¯ ⇒ Cm ( 0 ) . The diffusion coefficient of Cm 3+ ions was determined by cyclic voltammetry at different temperatures by applying Berzins–Delahay equation. The validity of the Arrhenius law was also verified and the activation energy for diffusion was found to be 28.21 kJ mol −1 . The apparent standard electrode potential of the redox couple Cm ( III ) / Cm ( 0 ) was found by chronopotentiometry at several temperatures. The thermodynamic properties of curium trichloride have also been calculated.