An Alkali Metal Bipolar Electrode for Molten Salt Electrolysis: I . A Simplified Approach

An alkali metal bipolar electrode (AMBE) for molten salt electrolysis applications, which hinders the migration of depositing metal ions towards the anolyte, is proposed. This electrode can be successfully used in the electrolytic recovery of metals having multivalent ions. In this paper a relationship between the electrode behavior and the thermodynamic properties of alkali metals is discussed, and a simplified model is proposed. An application to titanium electrodeposition from molten chlorides is shown.