Electrochemical behaviour of magnesium(II) on Ni electrode in LiCl-KCl eutectic

The electrochemical behaviour of magnesium(II) and the formation mechanism of Mg-Ni alloys on Ni electrode were studied in LiCl-KCl eutectic using various electrochemical techniques. Cyclic voltammogram and square-wave voltammogram revealed that under-potential deposition of magnesium occurred on Ni electrode because Mg-Ni alloy compounds were formed. The thermodynamic properties of the Mg-Ni intermetallics, Mg2Ni and MgNi2, were determined using open circuit chronopotentiometry in the temperature range of 818―893 K. Moreover, the Mg-Ni alloys were produced by potentiostatic and galvanostatic electrolysis under different conditions and charac-terized by means of scanning electron microscopy(SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectrometry(EDS) and X-ray diffraction(XRD). The experimental results indicate that Mg-Ni intermetallic compounds can be selectively produced by potentiostatic electrolysis.