Molten salts have historically served as electrochemical media for high temperature processes, such as pyroprocessing (spent nuclear fuel reprocessing), metal production, and catalysis. More recently, there has been a renewed interest in molten salts as efficient heat transfer media for energy technologies such as molten salt reactors (MSRs) and solar thermal power generation. Owing to the structural complexities of fused salt systems, the chemical properties of these mixtures depend on melt composition and temperature in intricate ways, and this is borne out by coordination geometry around the metal ions in the melt. In addition to the formal charge on the metal ion, the polarizing power of the constituent bulk melt cation, and the octahedral site preference energy are the factors defining the coordination geometry. The Molten Salts in Extreme Environments EFRC team seeks to understand the metal speciation and its variation with temperature, concentration and melt composition using UV-Vis and X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. The preliminary results will be discussed for transition metals in chloride salt melts.

Metal speciation and coordination geometry in molten salts: UV-vis and X-ray absorption studies

2019 Fall National Meeting

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