Electrochemical extraction of europium from molten fluoride media

Abstract

This work concerns the extraction of europium from molten fluoride media. Two electrochemical ways have been examined: (i) the use of a reactive cathode made of copper and (ii) the co-deposition with aluminium on inert electrode, leading to the formation of europium-copper and europium-aluminium alloys respectively, as identified by SEM-EDS analysis. Cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry were used to identify the reduction pathway and to characterise the step of Cu-Eu and Al-Eu alloys formation. Then, electrochemical extractions using the two methodologies have been performed with extraction efficiency around 92 % for copper electrode and 99.7 % for co-reduction with aluminium ions.