Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Molten salts are salts which exist in their solid state under standard temperature and pressure conditions but become liquid at elevated temperatures. These materials have gained considerable attention in recent years due to their unique thermal and chemical properties, which make them promising candidates for use as coolants, heat transfer fluids, and thermal energy storage materials in the next generation of clean energy technologies. Despite this recent interest, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of the properties of these salts and our understanding of the thermodynamic behaviour of these systems. These gaps need to be addressed, however molten salts also present significant experimental challenges due to their sensitivity to oxygen and moisture, the high temperatures of operation, and the corrosive nature of the salts under these conditions. Due to these challenges, specialized techniques are required for experimental studies of molten salt systems. In this research program, a molten salts research laboratory will be established with the highly specialized capabilities to support industrial needs while also innovating new experimental techniques for the accurate measurement of thermophysical properties of molten salts and exploring the fundamental thermodynamics of these systems. The short-term objectives of this research program are to develop new techniques to measure melting points, heat capacities, enthalpies, and densities of molten salt systems, and to use these results to model their thermodynamic behavior. The long-term goals of this research program are to develop additional innovative techniques to extend the thermophysical property measurements to viscosity and thermal conductivity and use these results to develop self-consistent temperature dependent models for these properties to gain a thorough understanding of the thermodynamics of these systems. This program addresses the need for research on molten salts as a promising material for clean energy sources, while also innovating new experimental techniques and discovering more about the thermodynamics of molten salts. This program will be the first of its kind in Nova Scotia, and one of very few within Canada with the capacity to study molten salts. Through this program, students will also have unique and valuable training opportunities, equipping them with practical skills which will benefit their future academic pursuits and careers. This program will also build institutional capacity, providing many opportunities for collaboration outside the scope of the proposed program.