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Concept
Molten salt
Summary
Molten salt is salt which is solid at standard temperature and pressure but has become liquid due to elevated temperature. Regular table salt has a melting point of 801 °C (1474 °F) and a heat of fusion of 520 J/g.
A salt that is normally liquid even at standard temperature and pressure is usually called a room-temperature ionic liquid, and molten salts are technically a class of ionic liquids.
Molten salts have a variety of uses. Molten chloride salt mixtures are commonly used as quenching baths for various alloy heat treatments, such as annealing and martempering of steel. Cyanide and chloride salt mixtures are used for surface modification of alloys such as carburizing and nitrocarburizing of steel.
Cryolite (a fluoride salt) is used as a solvent for aluminium oxide in the production of aluminium in the Hall-Héroult process.
Fluoride, chloride, and hydroxide salts can be used as solvents in pyroprocessing of nuclear fuel.
Molten salts (fluoride, chloride, and nitrate) can be used as heat transfer fluids as well as for thermal storage. This thermal storage is commonly used in concentrated solar power plants.
A commonly used thermal salt is the eutectic mixture of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate, which can be used as liquid between 260-550 °C. It has a heat of fusion of 161 J/g, and a heat capacity of 1.53 J/(g·K).
Experimental salts using lithium can be formed that have a melting point of 116 °C while still having a heat capacity of 1.54 J/(g·K).
Molten-salt reactors are a type of nuclear reactor that uses molten salt(s) as a coolant or as a solvent in which the fissile material is dissolved.
Ambient-temperature molten salts (also known as ionic liquids) are present in the liquid phase at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. Examples of such salts include N-ethylpyridinium bromide and aluminium chloride mix, discovered in 1951 and ethylammonium nitrate discovered by Paul Walden. Other ionic liquids take advantage of asymmetrical quaternary ammonium cations like alkylated imidazolium ions, and large, branched anions like the bistriflimide ion.
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Ionic liquid
An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt in the liquid state. In some contexts, the term has been restricted to salts whose melting point is below a specific temperature, such as . While ordinary liquids such as water and gasoline are predominantly made of electrically neutral molecules, ionic liquids are largely made of ions. These substances are variously called liquid electrolytes, ionic melts, ionic fluids, fused salts, liquid salts, or ionic glasses. Ionic liquids have many potential applications.
Concentrated solar power
Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat (solar thermal energy), which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction. As of 2021, global installed capacity of concentrated solar power stood at 6.
Liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a nearly constant volume independent of pressure. It is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, and plasma), and is the only state with a definite volume but no fixed shape. The density of a liquid is usually close to that of a solid, and much higher than that of a gas. Therefore, liquid and solid are both termed condensed matter.