China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The electrolysis of lunar soil in cryolite molten salts can realize the in-situ preparation of metals and oxygen, and it is of great significance to study the initial crystal temperature of cryolite molten salts containing lunar soil for the stable operation of the electrolytic cell. In this study, NEU-1 lunar soil simulant prepared from volcanic slag and basalt was used as raw material, mixed with cryolite to obtain electrolyte, which is used as sample to be tested, and the initial crystal temperature of cryolite molten salts with different NEU-1 lunar soil simulant addition and molecular ratios was measured by differential thermal analysis. The results indicated that when the molecular ratio was 2.2, the initial crystal temperature of the cryolite molten salts decreased from 974.9℃ to 932.0℃ with the increase of the addition amount of lunar soil simulant from 0% to 24%. The initial crystal temperature of the cryolite molten salts decreased by 1.79℃ as every 1% of the lunar soil simulant was added. When the addition amount of lunar soil simulant was 8%, the initial crystal temperature of the cryolite molten salts increased from 960.0℃ to 979.4℃ with the increase of molecular ratio from 2.2 to 2.7.