A furnace and environmental cell for thein situinvestigation of molten salt electrolysis using high-energy X-ray diffraction

Abstract

This paper describes the design, construction and implementation of a relatively large controlled-atmosphere cell and furnace arrangement. The purpose of this equipment is to facilitate thein situcharacterization of materials used in molten salt electrowinning cells, using high-energy X-ray scattering techniques such as synchrotron-based energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction. The applicability of this equipment is demonstrated by quantitative measurements of the phase composition of a model inert anode material, which were taken during anin situstudy of an operational Fray–Farthing–Chen Cambridge electrowinning cell, featuring molten CaCl2as the electrolyte. The feasibility of adapting the cell design to investigate materials in other high-temperature environments is also discussed.