A. N. Bushuev, O. V. El’kin, I. V. Tolstobrov, A. V. Sazanov, D. A. Kondrat’ev
ABSTRACT
In the present work, the reduction of holmium ions at a nickel electrode in a molten equimolar mixture of sodium and potassium chlorides with the addition of holmium chloride in the temperature range 1073–1173 K was studied by the cyclic voltammetry method. The potentials for the formation of nickel–holmium intermetallic compounds were found. A nickel-holmium alloy was synthesized by potentiostatic electrolysis. It is shown that under the selected conditions of electrolysis the resulting coating is single-phase and corresponds to the composition of HoNi2. The diffusion coefficients of holmium in nickel are calculated and the activation energy of the alloy formation process is determined.
KEYWORDS:
ionic melts, holmium, nickel, cyclic voltammetry, diffusion coefficient, activation energy