Study of the Reaction between Metals and Molten Salts (III) Electrical Conductivities of Silver-Molten Bismuth Trichloride Solutions

• Published in: Transactions of the Japan Institute of Metals 1968, Vol.9(1), pp.59-63
• Main Authors: Kamegashira, Naoki, Hama, Yoshiko, Miyake, Masanobu, Sano, Tadao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-4434; 2432-4701
• DOI: 10.2320/matertrans1960.9.59

This study has been carried out to clarify the interactions between metals and molten salts. As one of a series of researches on mixtures of metals with molten salts, the electrical conductivity of salt-rich solutions of silver in molten bismuth trichloride has been measured. For this system, when silver is dissolved into molten bismuth trichloride, the following reaction is considered: 3Ag+BiCl3=3AgCl+Bi. Bismuth thus produced, however, dissolves into molten bismuth trichloride as has been well known. The solution, therefore, is considered to be a mixture of silver chloride and bismuth-bismuth trichloride. For the region ranging from pure salt to 30 mol % Ag content, the electrical conductivity was measured by means of the capillary cell method with an alternating current in the temperature range 250°∼400°C under argon atmosphere. The electrical conductivity increased almost linearly with increasing Ag content in every temperature range. It has been shown that below 13.5 mol % Ag and at temperatures lower than 350°C the ionic conductance is predominant, but in a range of above 13.5 mol % Ag and temperatures higher than 350°C the semiconducting mechanism becomes predominant which can be explained by the electron hopping model.