Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Electrolysis of gadolinium chloride

Chemgineer - 1-8-2024 at 12:43

I produced a solution of gadolinium chloride by neutralising the metal with 20% hcl solution. This is a rather quick process and generates allot of heat.

I ensured the solution was ph neutral and set it up in a small duran bottle with a platinum wire anode and titanium cathode.

This was mostly a waste of time because I believe gadolinium hydroxide dropped out of the solution and coated the cathode stopping the circuit.

I believe this is the same way the magnesium salt reacts.

yobbo II - 3-8-2024 at 14:53

http://www.chlorates.exrockets.com/mag_chlorate.html

You can make mg chlorare ok

See exrockets.com

Posted wrong link.




Yob

[Edited on 3-8-2024 by yobbo II]

Attachment: mag_chlorate-1.pdf (112kB)
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bnull - 4-8-2024 at 06:15

Same reaction as magnesium, calcium, aluminum. The reduction potential for gadolinium(III) is very close to the one for magnesium (from the CRC Handbook 97th):
$$Gd^{+3}(aq)+3e^-\leftrightarrows Gd(s)~~~~-2,279~V.$$
What was the purpose, by the way? Chlorate or electroplating?

Chemgineer - 4-8-2024 at 10:57

Quote: Originally posted by bnull  
Same reaction as magnesium, calcium, aluminum. The reduction potential for gadolinium(III) is very close to the one for magnesium (from the CRC Handbook 97th):
$$Gd^{+3}(aq)+3e^-\leftrightarrows Gd(s)~~~~-2,279~V.$$
What was the purpose, by the way? Chlorate or electroplating?


Chlorate was the plan, i'm interested how volatile different chlorates are and the nice colours they produce.

I've seen the paper on producing magnesium chlorate before, it would be a 3D printoing project though to make the spinning cathodes!

knowledgevschaos - 4-8-2024 at 17:29

What are the spinning cathodes?

bnull - 5-8-2024 at 04:39

Quote: Originally posted by knowledgevschaos  
What are the spinning cathodes?

The cathodes are fitted to a motor which spins them like a drill bit. The name is amusing but that's exactly what they are. From the paper above (Vasudevan et al., Electrolytic preparation of magnesium chlorate from magnesium chloride):
Quote:
The cathodes were cylindrical stainless steel rods of different dimensions (80mm (h) x 10 mm (dia.), 70.5 mm (h) x 15 mm (dia.) and 90 mm (h) x 25 mm (dia.)). Depending on the parameters, each cathode was fitted to a rotating assembly and positioned at the centre of the celll.