Electrochemical behavior and dissolution processes of lithium metal in the LiCl–KCl–CsCl molten salt system

The electrochemical behavior of Li⁺ during the electrolysis of lithium metal in LiCl–KCl–CsCl molten salt systems containing different mass fractions of CsCl was investigated using cyclic voltammetry and square-wave voltammetry, and the effects of current density, CsCl content and temperature on the dissolution rate of lithium metal in the molten salts were investigated using reverse chronopotentiometry. The results show that the introduction of CsCl causes a positive shift in the reduction potential of lithium metal. In the LiCl–KCl–CsCl system, the dissolution rate of lithium metal has negligible influence within a certain current density range, and increases with the increase of temperature. Meanwhile, compared with the binary LiCl–KCl system, the dissolution rate of lithium metal decreases firstly and then increases with the increase of CsCl content. When the mass fraction of CsCl is 10%, the dissolution rate of lithium metal is the lowest, and the activation energy of lithium metal in LiCl–KCl–CsCl system during the dissolution process was 23.88 kJ/mol.