Molten salt

About: Molten salt is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 12404 publications have been published within this topic receiving 159979 citations.

Ionic liquid (molten salt) phase organometallic catalysis.

Abstract: For economical and ecological reasons, synthetic chemists are confronted with the increasing obligation of optimizing their synthetic methods. Maximizing efficiency and minimizing costs in the production of molecules and macromolecules constitutes, therefore, one of the most exciting challenges of synthetic chemistry.1-3 The ideal synthesis should produce the desired product in 100% yield and selectivity, in a safe and environmentally acceptable process.4 It is now well recognized that organometallic homogeneous catalysis offers one of the most promising approaches for solving this basic problem.2 Indeed, many of these homogeneous processes occur in high yields and selectivities and under mild reaction conditions. Most importantly, the steric and electronic properties of these catalysts can be tuned by varying the metal center and/or the ligands, thus rendering tailor-made molecular and macromolecular structures accessible.5,6 Despite the fact that various efficient methods, based on organometallic homogeneous catalysis, have been developed over the last 30 years on the laboratory scale, the industrial use of homogeneous catalytic processes is relatively limited.7 The separation of the products from the reaction mixture, the recovery of the catalysts, and the need for organic solvents are the major disadvantages in the homogeneous catalytic process. For these reasons, many homogeneous processes are not used on an industrial scale despite their benefits. Among the various approaches to address these problems, liquidliquid biphasic catalysis (“biphasic catalysis”) has emerged as one of the most important alternatives.6-11 The concept of this system implies that the molecular catalyst is soluble in only one phase whereas the substrates/products remain in the other phase. The reaction can take place in one (or both) of the phases or at the interface. In most cases, the catalyst phase can be reused and the products/substrates are simply removed from the reaction mixture by decantation. Moreover, in these biphasic systems it is possible to extract the primary products during the reaction and thus modulate the product selectivity.12 For a detailed discussion about this and other concepts of homogeneous catalyst immobilization, the reader is referred elsewhere.6,7 These biphasic systems might combine the advantages of both homogeneous (greater catalyst efficiency and mild reaction conditions) and heterogeneous (ease of catalyst recycling and separation of the products) catalysis. The advent of water-soluble organometallic complexes, especially those based on sulfonated phosphorus-containing ligands, has enabled various biphasic catalytic reactions to be conducted on an industrial scale.13-15 However, the use of water as a * Corresponding author. Fax: ++ 55 51 3316 73 04. E-mail: dupont@iq.ufrgs.br. 3667 Chem. Rev. 2002, 102, 3667−3692

Direct electrochemical reduction of titanium dioxide to titanium in molten calcium chloride

Abstract: Many reactive metals are difficult to prepare in pure form without complicated and expensive procedures Although titanium has many desirable properties (it is light, strong and corrosion-resistant), its use has been restricted because of its high processing cost In the current pyrometallurgical process--the Kroll process--the titanium minerals rutile and ilmenite are carbochlorinated to remove oxygen, iron and other impurities, producing a TiCl4 vapour This is then reduced to titanium metal by magnesium metal; the by-product MgCl2 is removed by vacuum distillation The prediction that this process would be replaced by an electrochemical route has not been fulfilled; attempts involving the electro-deposition of titanium from ionic solutions have been hampered by difficulties in eliminating the redox cycling of multivalent titanium ions and in handling very reactive dendritic products Here we report an electrochemical method for the direct reduction of solid TiO2, in which the oxygen is ionized, dissolved in a molten salt and discharged at the anode, leaving pure titanium at the cathode The simplicity and rapidity of this process compared to conventional routes should result in reduced production costs and the approach should be applicable to a wide range of metal oxides

All‐Solid Lithium Electrodes with Mixed‐Conductor Matrix

Abstract: The concept of a novel all‐solid composite electrode is presented. One example of such a composite contains a finely dispersed reactant, , in a solid mixed‐conducting matrix, . Repeated charging and discharging of such electrodes without appreciable loss of capacity has been demonstrated. The polarization is found to be comparable to values typical of highly porous electrode systems in molten salt electrolytes.

Ionic Liquids at Electrified Interfaces

Abstract: Until recently, “room-temperature” (<100–150 °C) liquid-state electrochemistry was mostly electrochemistry of diluted electrolytes(1)–(4) where dissolved salt ions were surrounded by a considerable amount of solvent molecules. Highly concentrated liquid electrolytes were mostly considered in the narrow (albeit important) niche of high-temperature electrochemistry of molten inorganic salts(5-9) and in the even narrower niche of “first-generation” room temperature ionic liquids, RTILs (such as chloro-aluminates and alkylammonium nitrates).(10-14) The situation has changed dramatically in the 2000s after the discovery of new moisture- and temperature-stable RTILs.(15, 16) These days, the “later generation” RTILs attracted wide attention within the electrochemical community.(17-31) Indeed, RTILs, as a class of compounds, possess a unique combination of properties (high charge density, electrochemical stability, low/negligible volatility, tunable polarity, etc.) that make them very attractive substances from fundamental and application points of view.(32-38) Most importantly, they can mix with each other in “cocktails” of one’s choice to acquire the desired properties (e.g., wider temperature range of the liquid phase(39, 40)) and can serve as almost “universal” solvents.(37, 41, 42) It is worth noting here one of the advantages of RTILs as compared to their high-temperature molten salt (HTMS)(43) “sister-systems”.(44) In RTILs the dissolved molecules are not imbedded in a harsh high temperature environment which could be destructive for many classes of fragile (organic) molecules.