Determination of chloride ion diffusion coefficients for zinc dissolution in a low temperature molten salt

Abstract

The transport properties and stoichiometry of the zinc dissolution process in mixtures of aluminum chloride and 1-methyl-3-ethylimidazolium chloride were studied. A new mass transfer correlation for rotating cylinder electrodes was found for these high Schmidt number electrolytes. Two limiting current regions were observed during the dissolution process which corresponded to a coordination number of four at low overpotentials and a coordination number of three at high overpotentials. The quantity D[mu]/T was calculated to be 3.5 x 10-10, which corresponds to a chloride ion radius of 2.1 x 10-8 cm.