Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor
Metals cannot be extracted by electrolysis of transition-metal sulfides because as liquids they are semiconductors, which exhibit high levels of electronic conduction and metal dissolution. Herein by introduction of a distinct secondary electrolyte, we reveal a high-throughput electro-desulfurizatio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108389 |
| _version_ | 1811072382545166336 |
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| author | Yin, Huayi Chung, Brice Hoani Valentin Sadoway, Donald Robert |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials Processing Center |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials Processing Center Yin, Huayi Chung, Brice Hoani Valentin Sadoway, Donald Robert |
| author_sort | Yin, Huayi |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Metals cannot be extracted by electrolysis of transition-metal sulfides because as liquids they are semiconductors, which exhibit high levels of electronic conduction and metal dissolution. Herein by introduction of a distinct secondary electrolyte, we reveal a high-throughput electro-desulfurization process that directly converts semiconducting molten stibnite (Sb[subscript 2]S[subscript 3]) into pure (99.9%) liquid antimony and sulfur vapour. At the bottom of the cell liquid antimony pools beneath cathodically polarized molten stibnite. At the top of the cell sulfur issues from a carbon anode immersed in an immiscible secondary molten salt electrolyte disposed above molten stibnite, thereby blocking electronic shorting across the cell. As opposed to conventional extraction practices, direct sulfide electrolysis completely avoids generation of problematic fugitive emissions (CO[subscript 2], CO and SO[subscript 2]), significantly reduces energy consumption, increases productivity in a single-step process (lower capital and operating costs) and is broadly applicable to a host of electronically conductive transition-metal chalcogenides. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:05:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/108389 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:05:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1083892022-09-30T13:21:25Z Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor Yin, Huayi Chung, Brice Hoani Valentin Sadoway, Donald Robert Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials Processing Center Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Yin, Huayi Chung, Brice Hoani Valentin Sadoway, Donald Robert Metals cannot be extracted by electrolysis of transition-metal sulfides because as liquids they are semiconductors, which exhibit high levels of electronic conduction and metal dissolution. Herein by introduction of a distinct secondary electrolyte, we reveal a high-throughput electro-desulfurization process that directly converts semiconducting molten stibnite (Sb[subscript 2]S[subscript 3]) into pure (99.9%) liquid antimony and sulfur vapour. At the bottom of the cell liquid antimony pools beneath cathodically polarized molten stibnite. At the top of the cell sulfur issues from a carbon anode immersed in an immiscible secondary molten salt electrolyte disposed above molten stibnite, thereby blocking electronic shorting across the cell. As opposed to conventional extraction practices, direct sulfide electrolysis completely avoids generation of problematic fugitive emissions (CO[subscript 2], CO and SO[subscript 2]), significantly reduces energy consumption, increases productivity in a single-step process (lower capital and operating costs) and is broadly applicable to a host of electronically conductive transition-metal chalcogenides. United States. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Award DE-AR0000047) TOTAL (Firm) 2017-04-24T20:55:54Z 2017-04-24T20:55:54Z 2016-08 2016-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108389 Yin, Huayi, Brice Chung, and Donald R. Sadoway. “Electrolysis of a Molten Semiconductor.” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 12584. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12584 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Nature |
| spellingShingle | Yin, Huayi Chung, Brice Hoani Valentin Sadoway, Donald Robert Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| title | Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| title_full | Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| title_fullStr | Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| title_short | Electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| title_sort | electrolysis of a molten semiconductor |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108389 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT yinhuayi electrolysisofamoltensemiconductor AT chungbricehoanivalentin electrolysisofamoltensemiconductor AT sadowaydonaldrobert electrolysisofamoltensemiconductor |