Aluminium Deposition and Dissolution Reactions in the Room Temperature Molten Salt, Aluminium Chloride/1-methyl-3-ethylimidazolium Chloride

The techniques of chronopotentiometry, current reversal chronopotentiometry, cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry were employed to investigate the mechanism of the aluminium deposition and dissolution reactions in the room temperature molten salt, AlCl{3}/1- methyl-3-ethylimidazolium chloride. The electrodeposition process was studied over a range of low chloroacidity of the melt, whilst the dissolution effect was studied over a wide range of the melt composition, with both glassy carbon, platinum and tungsten electrodes at ambient temperature. Results indicate that the electrodeposition of aluminium can only be obtained from an acidic melt. The electrodeposition process is associated with a nucleation process and complicated by a first order preceding chemical reaction. The aluminium deposition reaction was also found to be a quasi-reversible process. However the deposited aluminium was found to be unstable and subject to a slow corrosion process. This is most likely due to impurities and the organic cation present in the melt.