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© National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC 2021
M. Alston, T. N. Lambert (eds.), Energy-Sustainable Advanced Materials,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57492-5_6
Nanomaterials Enhanced Heat Storage
in Molten Salts
Xiaotong Guo, Di Hu, Linpo Yu, Lan Xia, and George Z. Chen
Abstract Molten salts have great potentials as thermal energy storage (TES) media
due to their many types and compositions, wide operating temperatures and relatively high values of specific heat capacity. The rapid development of TES technologies in recent years has triggered the modification of TES media to higher operating
temperatures and hence larger heat capacities for capturing and storing heat from a
wider range of sources, especially renewables and thermal wastes from industry. In
doing so, many nanomaterials have been added to molten salts, particularly their
eutectic mixtures, as heat storage enhancers as reported in the literature, achieving
remarkable increases in specific heat capacity. To explain the mechanism of the
resultant capacity variations, different factors of the nanomaterials including particle
size, concentration and structure, as well as interaction between the nanomaterials
and the molten salts have been investigated with divergent results. It has been speculated that the formation of nanolayers on the surface of the nanomaterials and the
induced larger surface area may be responsible for the enhanced specific heat capacity of molten salts. Besides, the principle of formation of the nanostructures and the
specific heat capacity prediction model were also proposed. More efforts are needed
to systematically analyse and integrate previous findings, including those contradictions originated from the scattered methods and techniques applied, to facilitate
more comparable and repeatable outputs in the further work.
Keywords Thermal energy storage · Specific heat capacity · Molten salts
Nanomaterials
X. Guo
International Doctoral Innovation Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of
Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China
D. Hu · L. Yu · L. Xia
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and
Engineering, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China
Energy Engineering Research Group, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of
Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China
© National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC 2021
M. Alston, T. N. Lambert (eds.), Energy-Sustainable Advanced Materials,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57492-5_6
Nanomaterials Enhanced Heat Storage
in Molten Salts
Xiaotong Guo, Di Hu, Linpo Yu, Lan Xia, and George Z. Chen
Abstract Molten salts have great potentials as thermal energy storage (TES) media
due to their many types and compositions, wide operating temperatures and relatively high values of specific heat capacity. The rapid development of TES technologies in recent years has triggered the modification of TES media to higher operating
temperatures and hence larger heat capacities for capturing and storing heat from a
wider range of sources, especially renewables and thermal wastes from industry. In
doing so, many nanomaterials have been added to molten salts, particularly their
eutectic mixtures, as heat storage enhancers as reported in the literature, achieving
remarkable increases in specific heat capacity. To explain the mechanism of the
resultant capacity variations, different factors of the nanomaterials including particle
size, concentration and structure, as well as interaction between the nanomaterials
and the molten salts have been investigated with divergent results. It has been speculated that the formation of nanolayers on the surface of the nanomaterials and the
induced larger surface area may be responsible for the enhanced specific heat capacity of molten salts. Besides, the principle of formation of the nanostructures and the
specific heat capacity prediction model were also proposed. More efforts are needed
to systematically analyse and integrate previous findings, including those contradictions originated from the scattered methods and techniques applied, to facilitate
more comparable and repeatable outputs in the further work.
Keywords Thermal energy storage · Specific heat capacity · Molten salts
Nanomaterials
X. Guo
International Doctoral Innovation Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of
Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China
D. Hu · L. Yu · L. Xia
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and
Engineering, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China
Energy Engineering Research Group, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of
Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China