Poster (EARTH)

[PE1-053] Non-aqueous Electrochemistry of Neodymium for Room temperature Metallurgy

○Churl Kyoung Lee¹, Gwangon Park², Jihee Kim² (1. Kumoh National Institute of Technology, School of Advanced Material Science, Professor, 2. Kumoh National Institute of Technology, School of Advanced Material Science, Student)

Keywords:Neodymium , Electrochemistry , Non-aqueous electrolyte, Metallurgy , Room temperature

Electrochemical redox of neodymium on a non-aqueous electrolyte was investigated for evaluation of possibility about rooms temperature metallurgy of rare earth metals(REMs) such as neodymium. It is also applicable in eco-friendly recycling of wastes containing the REMs such as NdFeB magnets. To confirm seletive dissolution and metallic reduction 0f neodymium at room temperature, electrochemical behavior of neodymium was studied in a mixture of 50 vol% of ethanol and 1:1 vol% EC/DEC loaded 0.5 M NdCl3. The continous dissolution of neodymium was observed through linear sweep voltammetry from the metallic neodymium anode. The cathodic peak corresponding reduction of neodymium was observed at -3.8 V (VS. Pt-QRE) through cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry test. Potentiostatic reduction of neodymium in the non-aqueous electrolyte was conducted at -6 V (vs. Pt-QRE) for 18 hours at room temperature. From the .orphological and chemical analysis by EDS and SEM, a significant amount of the uniformly deposited and metallic neodymium was found on the gold working elecrrode except for trace oxygen intoduced during handlling for the analyses.