Preparation of Lanthanum Nickel Oxide-Coated Ni Sheet Anodes and Their Application to Electrolytic Production of (CF3)3N in (CH3)4NF·4.0HF Melt

A new process for electrolytic production of a perfluorinated compound, (CF3)3N, using lanthanum nickel oxide-coated Ni sheet anode in the (CH3)4NF·4.0HF melt at room temperature, was developed. Thin films of the lanthanum nickel oxides were prepared on Ni sheets by sol-gel coating method using polyvinlylpyrrolidone(PVP). The main components of the thin films were La2O3, LaNiO3, and La2NiO4 at 500, 750 and 1000 °C, respectively. The anode performance in the (CH3)4NF·4.0HF melt depends greatly on the main component of the thin film, and the LaNiO3-coated Ni sheet anode gives the best anode performance. The potential of LaNiO3-coated Ni sheet anode remains constant at 5.9 V during electrolysis at 20 mA·cm−2 in the (CH3)4NF·4.0HF melt for 100 h. This is because LaNiO3 and NiF3, and/or Ni2F5, the latter of which was formed during electrolysis, in the film give a high electronic conductivity to the surface film during electrolysis. The maximum mole fraction of (CF3)3N (21.4%) was obtained at 20 mA·cm−2 in (CH3)4NF·4.0HF melt using the LaNiO3-coated Ni sheet.