2026-10-13T00:07:38Z https://www.scidb.cn/oai

10.57760/sciencedb.33093 2026-04-14T10:48:48Z

2026-04-14 Thermophysical Characterization and Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Low Melting Nitrate Molten Salts for Concentrating Solar Power doi:10.57760/sciencedb.33093 en Aiming at the problem of pipeline blockage in concentrated solar power (CSP) systems caused by the high freezing point of commercial nitrate molten salts, Na-K-Ca ternary (NKC) and Li-Na-K-Ca quaternary (LNKC-1) low-melting nitrate molten salts were prepared from nitrate raw materials related to salt lake resources. Their thermophysical properties were systematically tested, and the microstructure-property relationship was analyzed by molecular dynamics simulation under NPT ensemble. Results showed NKC had a melting point of 119.54℃ and decomposition temperature of 534.66℃, while LNKC-1 was 117.32℃ and 579.94℃, with a broader operating temperature range. Their average specific heat capacities were 1.035 and 1.041 J·g-1·℃-1 at 150~450℃, with viscosities of 1.8 and 2.3 mPa·s at 500℃, and the sharp rise in viscosity below 200℃ was the main performance shortcoming. Simulations confirmed the molten salts had a short-range ordered and long-range disordered structure, metal cations coordinated with O in NO₃⁻, and the anion-cation interaction strength followed Ca2+>Li+>Na+>K+, with the evolution of microstructure highly consistent with the change of macroscopic thermophysical properties. This study provides experimental and theoretical basis for the design of low-melting molten salts for CSP, and a new direction for the high-value utilization of lithium, potassium and calcium resources in western China’s salt lakes. Nitrate molten salt; Low melting point; Thermophysical properties; Molecular dynamics simulation; Structure property relationship Zhaocai Ning Jinli Li Yuan Zhong Xu Liu Huaiyou Wang PUBLIC https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ dataset Science Data Bank