Investigation of thermoelectric materials for low environmental load by molten salt electrochemistry based on soil clay minerals

Honda, Mitsunori   ; Goto, Takuya*; Kaneta, Yui ; Yaita, Tsuyoshi

We have been investigating the restoration of the environment in Fukushima. One of the issues to be solved is the removal of cesium from the soil of Fukushima. As we studied the technology to remove cesium from the soil of Fukushima, we thought that the reclamation could be accelerated by adding new functions (e.g., thermoelectric properties) to the clay minerals after removal. Soil clay minerals are composed of Si, Al, Fe, etc., and are low environmental load materials. Soil clay minerals were reduced by molten salt electrochemistry and their properties were investigated. Thermal diffusivity measurements showed no temperature dependence in the untreated sample, while the temperature dependence was significantly different in the case of -1.4 V molten salt electrolysis treatment.