The electrochemical behaviour of Ce, La and Nd oxy ions in MgCl2-NaCl-KCl eutectic was studied using cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, square-wave voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It was deduced that the lanthanides were present as REOCl (RE = Ce, La, Nd) in the electrolyte and that the reduction of oxychloride ions took place in a single step according to the reaction, REO+ + e → REO (RE = Ce, La, Nd). The reduction of REO+ was found to be reversible at lower scan rates, but quasi-reversible at scan rates above 75mV/s. The diffusion coefficient of Nd oxy ions, at 873K, was 3.7 x 10-6cm2/s.

Electrochemistry of Rare Earth Oxy Ions REO+ (RE = Ce, La, Nd) in Molten MgCl2-NaCl-KCl Eutectic. S.Vandarkuzhali, P.Venkatesh, S.Ghosh, G.Seenivasan, B.Prabhakara Reddy, T.Subramanian, N.Sivaraman, K.Nagarajan: Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 2007, 611[1-2], 181-91