Abstract
Molten metal chloride salts are promising candidates for advanced heat transfer fluids in generation IV nuclear reactors and beyond. However, research on the magnetic properties of suspended metallic nanoparticles at elevated temperatures is scarce, and there have been no attempts to develop a high-temperature, molten salt based ferrofluid. Such a ferrofluid would enable in situ manipulation of both the physical and thermal properties of the fluid via an external magnetic field. This study examines molten salt based ferrofluids comprised of metallic cobalt nanoparticles dispersed in molten metal chloride salts. High-temperature magnetometry and magneto-thermogalvometric measurements were conducted to evaluate the magnetic characteristics of the ferrofluid. Further analysis was conducted through a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy, solubility tests, and diffraction measurements. The metallic cobalt nanoparticles exhibited a notable degree of chemical stability and sustained magnetism from 25 to 800 °C when suspended in NaCl-MgCl2 and KCl-ZnCl2 mixtures.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 429-440 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 8 2025 |
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). The authors would like to acknowledge the University of Tennessee Advanced Microscopy and Imaging Center for instrument use and scientific and technical assistance.