2019 Volume 71 Issue 4 Pages 150-157
Conventional deoxidation process of metals by using deoxidizing agent involves the problem of fine inclusions formation. To avoid this problem, the electrochemical deoxidation process employing an oxygen pump with solid electrolyte of ZrO2 has been presently taken up. Trials have been made for the utilization of solid-liquid coexistence in the connection between electrode and target metal made of the same metal to exclude the effect of contamination of electrode metal other than target metal. The present study has examined the possibility of this innovative method by implementing electrochemical deoxidation on molten copper in conjunction with solid copper electrode using an oxygen pump with the electrolyte of calcia stabilized zirconia. Electro-motive forces obtained in the function as oxygen sensor has been compared and confirmed to correspond to the analyzed oxygen concentrations after experiment. Deoxidation efficiency by this method was found to be as high as 53% in regard to the total current assuming the transport number of oxygen ion to be unity.
