Molten salt studies

Molten salts constitute a category of liquids which is called ionic liquids or molten electrolytes. These liquids have some characteristics which are different from that of liquids at room temperature. Molten salt studies are very important for understanding of the liquid state because molten salts consist of ions, and the... 

Structural studies in fused salts by means of careful and thorough high-temperature measurements of electrical conductivity, density, viscosity, and laser- Raman spectroscopy have been reviewed. Four problem areas are discussed (1) melting mechanisms of ionic compounds with large polyatomic cations, (2) salts as ultra-concentrated electrolyte solutions, (3) structural aspects and Raman spectroscopy, and (4) electrolysis of molten carbonates. The results in these areas are summarized and significant contributions to new experimental techniques for molten-salt studies are discussed.275 The physical properties and structure of molten salts have also been reviewed in terms of operational (hole, free volume, partly disordered crystal) and a priori (intermolecular potential) models.276 Electrochemistry... 

The salt used in an MSR is very noxious material, and its operating temperature is very high (710 560°C). So, simulant material, like heat transfer oils, is used at relatively low temperature in the preliminary study for safety. The interesting similarity has been found and reported first by University of CaUfomia Berkeley (UC Berkeley) (Bickel et al., 2014). Thus, for understanding of high Prandtl number molten salt as a heat transfer medium, a fundamental molten salt study has been... 

Hagiwara R, Matsumoto K, Tsuda T, Ito Y, Kohara S, Suzuya K, Matsumoto H, Miyazaki Y (2002) The structures of alkylimidazolium fluorohydrogenate molten salts studied by high-energy X-ray diffraction. J Non-chryst Solids 312-314 414-418... 

Solvent activity may also be determined via vapor pressure measui o-ment. Although the techniques for such molten salt studies are well-established (Corbett and Duke, 1963), it is probably true that activity data for solutions even with only one volatile component generally cannot be so obtained in the limiting law region as accurately as by crysocopic means, except, of course, for systems exhibiting solid solution complica-... 

In addition to the more or less classical electroanalytical methods discussed above, the application of thin-layer electrochemical cells, spectroscopic characterization coupled with electrochemical generation, and the use of small digital computers coupled to electrochemical instru-mentation - for molten salt studies have been reported. 

Oxidation Step. A review of mechanistic studies of partial oxidation of propylene has appeared (58). The oxidation process flow sheet (Fig. 2) shows equipment and typical operating conditions. The reactors are of the fixed-bed shell-and-tube type (about 3—5 mlong and 2.5 cm in diameter) with a molten salt coolant on the shell side. The tubes are packed with catalyst, a small amount of inert material at the top serving as a preheater section for the feed gases. Vaporized propylene is mixed with steam and ak and fed to the first-stage reactor. The feed composition is typically 5—7% propylene, 10—30%... 

The early history of ionic liquid research was dominated by their application as electrochemical solvents. One of the first recognized uses of ionic liquids was as a solvent system for the room-temperature electrodeposition of aluminium [1]. In addition, much of the initial development of ionic liquids was focused on their use as electrolytes for battery and capacitor applications. Electrochemical studies in the ionic liquids have until recently been dominated by work in the room-temperature haloaluminate molten salts. This work has been extensively reviewed [2-9]. Development of non-haloaluminate ionic liquids over the past ten years has resulted in an explosion of research in these systems. However, recent reviews have provided only a cursory look at the application of these new ionic liquids as electrochemical solvents [10, 11]. 

X-ray diffraction has been used for the study both of simple molten salts and of binary mixtures thereof, as well as for liquid crystalline materials. The scattering process is similar to that described above for neutron diffraction, with the exception that the scattering of the photons arises from the electron density and not the nuclei. The X-ray scattering factor therefore increases with atomic number and the scattering pattern is dominated by the heavy atoms in the sample. Unlike in neutron diffraction, hydrogen (for example) scatters very wealdy and its position cannot be determined with any great accuracy. 

So far, there have been few published simulation studies of room-temperature ionic liquids, although a number of groups have started programs in this area. Simulations of molecular liquids have been common for thirty years and have proven important in clarifying our understanding of molecular motion, local stmcture and thermodynamics of neat liquids, solutions and more complex systems at the molecular level [1 ]. There have also been many simulations of molten salts with atomic ions [5]. Room-temperature ionic liquids have polyatomic ions and so combine properties of both molecular liquids and simple molten salts. 

Buchanan and co-workers studied the behavior of various aromatic compounds in antimony(III) molten salts [30]. These salts can act both as mild Lewis acids and allow redox reactions to take place. The Lewis acidity of the melt can be tuned by controlling the concentration of [SbCl2]. Basic melts are formed by addition of a few mol % of a chloride donor such as KCl, whereas acidic melts are formed by addition of chloride acceptors such as AICI3 (Scheme 5.1-11). 

Nucleophilic displacement reactions One of the most common reactions in organic synthesis is the nucleophilic displacement reaction. The first attempt at a nucleophilic substitution reaction in a molten salt was carried out by Ford and co-workers [47, 48, 49]. FFere, the rates of reaction between halide ion (in the form of its tri-ethylammonium salt) and methyl tosylate in the molten salt triethylhexylammoni-um triethylhexylborate were studied (Scheme 5.1-20) and compared with similar reactions in dimethylformamide (DMF) and methanol. The reaction rates in the molten salt appeared to be intermediate in rate between methanol and DMF (a dipolar aprotic solvent loiown to accelerate Sn2 substitution reactions). 

Electrochemically, the system metal/molten salt is somewhat similar to the system metal/aqueous solution, although there are important differences, arising largely from differences in temperature and in electrical conductivity. Most fused salts are predominantly ionic, but contain a proportion of molecular constituents, while pure water is predominantly molecular, containing very low activities of hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. Since the aqueous system has been extensively studied, it may be instructive to point out some analogues in fused-salt systems. 

Because of the interest in its use in elevated-temperature molten salt electrolyte batteries, one of the first binary alloy systems studied in detail was the lithium-aluminium system. As shown in Fig. 1, the potential-composition behavior shows a long plateau between the lithium-saturated terminal solid solution and the intermediate P phase "LiAl", and a shorter one between the composition limits of the P and y phases, as well as composition-dependent values in the single-phase regions [35], This is as expected for a binary system with complete equilibrium. The potential of the first plateau varies linearly with temperature, as shown in Fig. 2. 

Other Pyrochemical Processes. The chemistry of pyrochemi-cal separation processes is another fertile area of research e.g., new molten salt systems, scrub alloys, etc. and the behavior of plutonium in these systems. Studies of liquid plutonium metal processes should also be explored, such as filtration methods to remove impurities. Since Rocky Flats uses plutonium in the metal form, methods to convert plutonium compounds to metal and purify the metal directly are high-priority research projects. 

Molten salt extraction residues are processed to recover plutonium by an aqueous precipitation process. The residues are dissolved in dilute HC1, the actinides are precipitated with potassium carbonate, and the precipitate redissolved in nitric acid (7M) to convert from a chloride to a nitrate system. The plutonium is then recovered from the 7M HNO3 by anion exchange and the effluent sent to waste or americium recovery. We are studying actinide (III) carbonate chemistry and looking at new... 

After a study of the three alternatives we concluded that pyroredox offered the most promise for anode residue recovery. Pyroredox is a molten-salt process in which plutonium metal is oxidized chemically into the salt phase and then reduced chemically into the metal phase. Most of the impurities are not oxidized and remain in the metal residue. Thus, for a Pu-Ga anode residual, the reactions would be ... 

Metal/molten salt interfaces have been studied mainly by electrocapillary833-838 and differential capacitance839-841 methods. Sometimes the estance method has been used.842 Electrocapillary and impedance measurements in molten salts are complicated by nonideal polarizability of metals, as well as wetting of the glass capillary by liquid metals. The capacitance data for liquid and solid electrodes in contact with molten salt show a well-defined minimum in C,E curves and usually have a symmetrical parabolic form.8 10,839-841 Sometimes inflections or steps associated with adsorption processes arise, whose nature, however, is unclear.8,10 A minimum in the C,E curve lies at potentials close to the electrocapillary maximum, but some difference is observed, which is associated with errors in comparing reference electrode (usually Pb/2.5% PbCl2 + LiCl + KC1)840 potential values used in different studies.8,10 It should be noted that any comparison of experimental data in aqueous electrolytes and in molten salts is somewhat questionable. 

The popular and well-studied primitive model is a degenerate case of the SPM with = 0, shown schematically in Figure (c). The restricted primitive model (RPM) refers to the case when the ions are of equal diameter. This model can realistically represent the packing of a molten salt in which no solvent is present. For an aqueous electrolyte, the primitive model does not treat the solvent molecules exphcitly and the number density of the electrolyte is umealistically low. For modeling nano-surface interactions, short-range interactions are important and the primitive model is expected not to give adequate account of confinement effects. For its simphcity, however, many theories [18-22] and simulation studies [23-25] have been made based on the primitive model for the bulk electrolyte. Ap-phcations to electrolyte interfaces have also been widely reported [26-30]. 

Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations have been extensively applied to molten salts since 1968 to study structure, thermodynamic properties, and dynamic properties from a microscopic viewpoint. Several review papers have been published on computer simulation of molten salts. " Since the Monte Carlo method cannot yield dynamic properties, MD methods have been used to calculate dynamic properties. 

---