Effect of Chloride Molten Salt on the Structural Characteristics of Deposited Carbon-Based Electrolysis Products

Electrochemical graphitization in molten saltsMolten salt is a novel method for converting amorphous carbon into graphite materialsMaterials at relatively low temperaturesTemperature. For this processProcess, it is of great significance to further understand the correlationCorrelation between the thermal and physical properties of molten saltMolten salt and the structural properties of the electrolyte to optimize the molten saltMolten salt selection further and adjust the product's microstructureMicrostructure. In this work, the electrochemical transformation of deposited carbonDeposited carbon in different chloride (NaCl, KCl, and CaCl2) molten saltsMolten salt was studied. The results show that under conditions at a cell voltage of 2.8 V and a molten pool temperatureTemperature of 900 °C for eight hours, amorphous deposited carbonDeposited carbon can achieve graphitization transformation in CaCl2, accompanied by removing O, N, and S atoms. Pearson correlationCorrelation analysis of molten saltMolten salt thermophysical properties and electrolytic product structureStructure showed that the conductivity and viscosity of molten saltMolten salt affected the change of specific surface area during the electrochemical transformation of deposited carbonDeposited carbon. The molecular simulation results show that the charge transferCharge transfer of cations to cathode DC in molten saltMolten salt contributes to the change of surface chemical properties of the electrolysis products, and the greater the transfer charge, the greater the degree of graphitization transformation of amorphous carbon, and the greater the removal rate of impurity elements.