Seminar & Colloquium
[세미나: 12월 22일(금), 오전 11시] Prof. Hojong Kim, The Pennsylvania State University
Title
Electrochemistry for harvesting thermodynamic properties of reactive rara-earth alloys
Speaker
Prof. Hojong Kim, The Pennsylvania State University
Education
- 2009 ~ 2011 Postdoctoral. Materials Science & Engineering, MIT (Cambridge, MA)
- 2000 ~ 2004 PhD. Materials Science & Engineering, MIT(Cambridge, MA)
- 1993 ~ 2000 BS. Materials Science & Engineering, Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea)
Experience
- 2020 ~ present Associate Professor, The Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA)
- 2014 ~ 2020 Assistant Professor, The Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA)
- 2009 ~ 2013 Post-doc/Research Scientist, MIT (Cambridge, MA)
- 2004 ~ 2009 Sr. Research Scientist/Mgr., Samsung-Corning Precision Glass Co. (S. Korea)
- 2000 ~ 2004 Research Assistant, Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory, MIT (Cambridge, MA)
| Date | Friday December 22th , 2023
| Time | 11:00 ~
| Venue | 33동 125호(WCU 다목적실)
[Abstract]
Electrochemistry plays an essential role in modern technologies of energy conversion, metals production/separation, catalysts, and corrosion-resistant materials, requiring a proper control of electrode reactions in a complex environment for successful development of future sustainable technologies. Today, rare-earth metals are produced by electrolytic reduction in molten salts and play a critical role for the transition to a green, low-carbon economy because of their essential role in renewable energy technologies such as permanent magnet (NdFeB) motors for electric vehicles and wind turbines. This seminar will introduce electrochemical processes for rare-earth production in molten salts with specific focus on fundamental challenges of rare-earth electrochemistry (e.g., high reactivity and multi-valent states) that can lead to low process yield.
In recycling used nuclear fuels to close nuclear fuel cycle via electrochemical approach (pyroprocessing), fission products such as rare-earth elements (e.g., Nd, Gd) must be separated from molten salts (e.g., LiCl-KCl) to reuse the salt and thus to decrease the volume of nuclear waste. To enhance recovery efficiency of rare-earth elements from molten salts, liquid metals (Bi, Sn) were employed as a cathode material. The thermodynamic properties of these rare-earth alloys (Nd-Bi, Nd-Sn, Gd-Bi) were investigated via electromotive force (emf) measurements to quantify the chemical interactions between rare-earth metals and liquid metals. High recovery yield of rare-earth elements into liquid metals was well observed (>90%) in molten salts, leveraging the strong chemical interactions.
| Host | 정인호 교수(02-880-7077)