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Thermodynamic Considerations In Molten Salt Electrolysis For Rare Earth Metals, Arwin Gunawan

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Many applications utilize rare earths as a part of their essential composition, such as: Ni-MH batteries, glass screen, magnets, fluorescent lightning, etc. These reactive elements are normally found as an oxide compound due to their affinity with oxygen. Their oxide formation exhibits a high standard free energy, which make them really stable. Consequently, extracting rare earths cannot be easily done with a simple acid-base reaction.

It has been known that there are two reduction ways to extract rare earth, metallothermic reduction and molten salt electrolysis process. Metallothermic method is determined by standard free energy formation, melting point, boiling point, vapor …