Electrochemical and thermodynamic properties of ytterbium trichloride in molten caesium chloride

This work presents the electrochemical study of YbCl3 in molten CsCl in the temperature range 973–1073 K. Transient electrochemical techniques have been used in order to investigate the reduction mechanism, transport parameters and thermodynamics properties of the reaction YbCl 2 + 1 / 2 Cl 2 = YbCl 3 . The results obtained show that the reduction reaction Yb ( III ) + e ¯ ⇔ Yb ( II ) is reversible being controlled by the rate of the mass transfer. The diffusion coefficient of [ YbCl 6 ] 3 - complex ions was determined. The apparent standard electrode potential of the soluble–soluble redox system Yb 3 + / Yb 2 + was obtained by cyclic voltammetry.