in this regard it should be noted t

in this regard it should be noted that the electrical potential in fact causes electrochemical reaction(1)to take place,chemical reaction(2)following automatically as the DHal is produced by reaction(1).the MDHal compound thus formed can typically be used as an electrolyte in an electrochemical cell.the metal D may be a member of the group comprising aluminum,(in which case x is 3),and zine(in which case x is 2)the separator being a solid conductor of alkali metal ions,eg a solid conductor of sodium ions such as beta-alumina or nasicon,so that the alkali metal formed in reaction(1)passes through the separator in ionic form and is discharged to the metallic form when it is released from the separator to the molten alkali metal.in another embodiment of the ivention,the separator may be a micromolecular sieve such as tectosilicate,eg a felspar,felspathoid,or zeolite,in this case the alkali metal formed in reaction(1)may pass through the separator in ionic form or metallic form to be released in metallic form from the separator into the molten alkali metal.