In this study, molten salt electrorefining was used to recover indium metal from In-Sn crude metal sourced from indium tin oxide (ITO) scrap. The electrolyte used was a mixture of eutectic LiF-KF salt and InF3 initiator, melted and operated at 700°C. Voltammetric analysis was performed to optimize InF3 content in the electrolyte, and cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to determine the redox potentials of In metal and the electrolyte. The optimum initiator concentration was 7 wt% of InF3, at which the diffusion coefficients were saturated. The reduction potential was controlled by applying constant current densities of 5, 10, and 15 mA/cm2 using chronopotentiometry (CP) techniques. In metal from the In-Sn crude melt was deposited on the cathode surface and was collected in an alumina crucible.
The flow behavior of 7175 aluminum alloy was modeled with Arrhenius-type constitutive equations using flow stress curves during a hot compression test. Compression tests were conducted at three different temperatures (250°C, 350°C, and 450°C) and four different strain rates (0.005, 0.05, 0.5, and 5 s−1). A good consistency between measured and set values in the experimental parameters was shown at strain rates of 0.005, 0.05, and 0.5 s−1, while the measured data at 5 s−1 showed the temperature rise of the specimen, which was attributable to deformation heat generated by the high strain rate, and a fluctuation in the measured strain rates. To minimize errors in the fundamental data and to overcome the limitations of compression tests at high strain rates, constitutive equations were derived using flow curves at 0.005, 0.05, and 0.5 s−1 only. The results indicated that the flow stresses predicted according to the derived constitutive equations were in good agreement with the experimental results not only at strain rates of 0.005, 0.05, and 0.5 s−1 but also at 5 s−1. The prediction of the flow behavior at 5 s−1 was correctly carried out by inputting the constant strain rate and temperature into the constitutive equation.