The Impact of Binary Salt Blends’ Composition on Their Thermophysical Properties for Innovative Heat Storage Materials

Abstract

Heat storage is an emerging field of research, and, therefore, new materials with enhanced properties are being developed. Examples of phase change materials that provide high heat storage are inorganic salts and salt mixtures. They are commonly used for industrial applications due to their high operational temperature and latent heat. These parameters can be modified by combining different types of salts. This paper presents the experimental study of the impact of the composition of binary salts on their thermophysical properties. Unlike the literature data, this article provides a detailed analysis of the phase change process in both directions: solid–liquid and liquid–solid. The results indicate that the highest latent heat was observed for a 70% NaNO3 content in the NaNO3–KNO3 mixture. Therefore, when this salt is used for heat storage, the most favorable choice is a 70:30 ratio, which provides the highest heat storage density and the lowest phase transition temperature. In the case of the NaNO3–NaNO2 mixture, the highest value of latent heat occurs for a ratio of 80:20, resulting in phase transition temperatures of 267.0 °C for the solid–liquid transition, and 253.5 °C for the liquid–solid transition. For heat storage applications, it is recommended to use pure NaNO2 salt instead of the NaNO3–NaNO2 mixture.

Keywords

• phase change material
• heat storage
• binary salt mixtures
• DSC–TGA
• thermophysical properties