Editors: | F. Kongoli, M. Gaune-Escard, J. Dupont, R. Fehrmann, A. Loidl, D. MacFarlane, R. Richert, M. Watanabe, L. Wondraczek, M. Yoshizawa-Fujita, Y. Yue |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 177 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-989820-00-1 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
Molten halide salts are of interest for applications as heat transport fluids (HTF) in concentrated solar power plants due to their excellent resilience at high temperatures. Application as HTF requires a combination of properties including high heat capacity, low vapor pressure and low viscosity to optimize fluid flow through heat-exchanger networks. A fundamental understanding of viscous behavior in halide salts in relation to their structure is therefore of interest for optimizing HTF formulations. Here we perform a combination of modeling (ab-initio molecular dynamics) [1] and spectroscopic analysis (Raman) [2] of tetrahedral zinc chloride melts as a function of temperature. It is found that the ratio of edge- to corner-sharing tetrahedra varies with temperature and that it can be correlated with the viscous behavior through configurational entropy considerations. More interestingly, it is observed that a fragile-to-strong transition occurs at high temperature which can also be correlated with a change in structural behavior [3]. This behavior is compared with that of other tetrahedral melts and found to be related to changes in multiple physical properties such as heat-capacity, density, compressibility etc.