Wettability Control for Correct Thermophysical Properties Determination of Molten Salts and Their Nanofluids

Abstract

Proper recording of thermophysical properties for molten salts (MSs) and molten salts based nanofluids (MSBNs) is of paramount importance for the thermal energy storage (TES) technology at concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. However, it is recognized by scientific and industrial communities to be non-trivial, because of molten salts creeping (scaling) inside a measuring crucible or a sample container. Here two strategies are proposed to solve the creeping problem of MSs and MSBNs for the benefit of such techniques as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and laser flash apparatus (LFA). The first strategy is the use of crucibles with rough inner surface. It was found that only nanoscale roughness solves the creeping problem, while micron-scale roughness does not affect the wetting phenomena considerably. The second strategy is the use of crucible made of or coated with a low-surface energy material. Both strategies resulted in contact angle of molten salt higher than 90° and as a result, repeatable measurements in correspondence to the literature data. The proposed methods can be used for other characterization techniques where the creeping of molten salts brings the uncertainty or/and unrepeatability of the measurements.

Keywords

• molten salt
• thermophysical properties determination
• wetting
• differential scanning calorimetry
• laser flash apparatus