Cooperative Electroreduction of Cerium and Nickel Ions in the Equimolar KCl-NaCl Melt at 973 K

Cyclic and square-wave voltammetry and open-circuit chronopotentiometry (on/off curves) are used to study the cooperative electroreduction of cerium and nickel ions at a tungsten electrode in the equimolar KCl-NaCl melt at 973 K. Analysis of cyclic voltammetry curves of the KCl-NaCl-CeCl3-NiCl2 molten system and results obtained by open-circuit chronopotentiometry (on/off curves) and square-wave voltammetry allow us to conclude that the electrochemical synthesis of cerium intermetallics with nickel can be fulfilled only in a kinetic mode, i.e., by electroreduction of [CeCl6](3-) ions on metallic nickel preliminary deposited on the tungsten electrode, which is accompanied by the formation of CexNiy intermetallics as a result of reactive diffusion. Based on the data obtained by different physicochemical methods, electrochemical synthesis of the CexNiy intermetallics is performed. The synthesized intermetallics are studied by X-ray diffraction using a D2Phaser diffractometer and a VEGA 3LMN (Tescan) scanning electron microscope.