Effects of MgO Nanoparticles on Thermo-Physical Properties of LiNO3-NaNO3-KNO3 for Thermal Energy Storage

Molten salt LiNO3-NaNO3-KNO3 has been investigated as heat transfer and thermal storage media for its low melting point and good thermal performance. In this paper, nanofluids were synthesized by dispersing MgO nanoparticles into LiNO3-NaNO3-KNO3, and the effects of nanoparticles on thermal properties were studied with different sizes (20-100 nm) and mass percent concentrations (0.5-2.0 wt.%). The addition of nanoparticles had little effect on melting temperature, and led to a slight increase in enthalpy of fusion by 2.0-5.5%. Compared with base salt, the density of nanofluid increased a little by 0.22-1.15%. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) test implied that nubby and punctate microstructures were responsible for larger surface area and interfacial energy, which could lead to the improvement of specific heat capacity reaching 2.6-10.6%. The heat transfer characteristics remarkably increased with the addition of nanoparticles, and the enhancement of average thermal diffusivity and conductivity of salt with 1 wt.% nano-MgO could be 5.3-11.7% and 11.3-21.2%, respectively. Besides, the viscosities of nanofluids slightly increased for 3.3-8.1%. As a conclusion, nano-MgO was positively influential on the thermal properties of LiNO3-NaNO3-KNO3 base salt.

Automated summary

Nanofluids were synthesized by dispersing MgO nanoparticles into LiNO3-NaNO3-KNO3, and the addition of nanoparticles led to improvements in thermal properties of the salt. The nanofluids showed enhancements in specific heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, and conductivity, while slightly increasing the viscosity.