Electrolytic cell for low-energy extraction of rare-earth metals

Abstract

The invention provides a novel electrolytic cell structure, and particularly relates to an electrolytic cell for low-energy extraction of rare-earth metals. The electrolytic cell comprises a cell body, a cathode, a movable anode, an insulating layer, a thermal-insulation sealing furnace lid and an anodic conducting rod, wherein the cathode and the movable anode are vertically and parallelly placed in the cell body; the insulating layer and the thermal-insulation sealing furnace lid are located at the upper part of the cell body; the anodic conducting rod penetrates through the side wall of the insulating layer; one end of the anodic conducting rod is detachably and fixedly connected with the movable anode; the other end of the anodic conducting rod is connected with a sliding mechanism outside the cell body; the horizontal movement of the anodic conducting rod can be realized by controlling the configuration of the sliding mechanism so as to control the anode to move to be close to or be away from the cathode in the horizontal direction. Trough the movement of the anode, the novel electrolytic cell structure solves the problem that the heat loss and the energy consumption are increased in the electrolytic process because the polar distance is increased.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to an extraction device related to rare earth metals and their alloys, in particular to an electrolytic cell for electrolytically extracting rare earth metals. Background technique [0002] At present, the vast majority of light rare earth metals are produced by molten salt electrolysis, such as the production of lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, and praseodymium-neodymium alloys, dysprosium-iron alloys, etc. by molten salt electrolysis. The electrolyte system used includes two types: chloride electrolyte system, such as REC1 3 -KCl; fluoride-oxide electrolyte system, such as RE 2 o 3 -REF 3 -LiF. [0003] At present, rare earth metals are mainly prepared by electrolysis of fluoride-oxide system in China. Among them, the graphite crucible is used as the lining to hold the electrolyte, four arc-shaped graphite blocks are used as anodes, molybdenum or tungsten rods are arranged on the axis of the crucible as cathodes,...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0007] The present invention aims at the problems existing in the commonly used rare earth electrolytic cell at present, that is, with the progress of electrolysis, the electrode pole distance gradually increases, the temperature of the electrolytic cell increases, the energy consumption increases and the anode gas cannot be well collected.

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