Investigation of the electrowinning of neodymium oxide in room temperature ionic liquid

Abstract

Neodymium has widespread applications in magnets, electronics, optical and laser materials. Currently, neodymium is produced using high-temperature molten salts processes that are very energy intensive and costly. There has been ongoing efforts to develop a technique for production of neodymium from neodymium oxide at low temperatures. Electrowinning technique for reduction of neodymium oxide in room temperature ionic liquid is designed, discussed and evaluated. The chemical process for synthesis of Nd(TFSI)3 from Nd2O3 and hydrogen-cation-based ionic liquid (HTFSI) is described. The electrochemical behavior and the electrodeposition of neodymium in hydrogen-cation-based ionic liquid are investigated. The cyclic voltammetric measurements are conducted and discussed to show one-step reduction of the trivalent neodymium ion in hydrogen-cation-based ionic liquid. The electrodeposition of neodymium in hydrogen-cation-based ionic liquid is carried out using a two-electrode system with copper cathode and neodymium anode. Furthermore, the electrodeposits from are investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X- ray analysis (EDX).