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Electrochemical deposition of Nd and Nd–Fe alloy from Cu6Nd alloy in a NaCl–KCl–NdCl3 melt

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Abstract

Electrorefining effectively separates metals from their corresponding alloys. To obtain Nd from Cu6Nd alloy, cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry were used to investigate the reduction behavior of Nd3+ and the anode dissolution behavior of Cu6Nd in the NaCl–KCl–0.5mol%NdCl3 melt at 1023 K. According to the analysis of the electrochemical behavior, the cell voltage was determined to be between 0.3 and 1.2 V for separating Nd from Cu6Nd. After electrolysis at 0.6 V for 4 h, the Nd was found at the surface of the Mo cathode without any Cu. For the Fe cathode, a deposition with an atom ratio of Nd: Fe = 1:1 was formed on the surface. However, the low current density of separation remains a great experimental challenge that must be solved.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51574163 and 51174055). The author’s stay at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) for research in the Netherlands was financially supported by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). The authors thank Dr. Zhi-yuan Chen and Dr. Yu-liu You from TU Delft and Dr. Hui-hong Lyu and Dr. Liang Xu from Anhui University of Technology (AHTU) for their constructive comments and linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Chen-teng Sun & Qian Xu

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2628 CD, The Netherlands

    Chen-teng Sun, Yan-ping Xiao & Yong-xiang Yang

  3. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan, 243002, China

    Yan-ping Xiao & Yong-xiang Yang

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  1. Chen-teng Sun
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  2. Qian Xu
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  3. Yan-ping Xiao
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Correspondence to Qian Xu.

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Sun, Ct., Xu, Q., Xiao, Yp. et al. Electrochemical deposition of Nd and Nd–Fe alloy from Cu6Nd alloy in a NaCl–KCl–NdCl3 melt. Int J Miner Metall Mater 27, 1650–1656 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-020-2130-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-020-2130-0

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