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

Abstract

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.

A High Thermal Conductivity of MgO-H2O Nanofluid Prepared by Two-Step Technique

“…Nonlinear results revealed that the 20 nm and 40 nm MgO nanoparticles exhibited non-Newtonian behavior at weight concentrations higher than 5%. J. Lu et al [60] used molten salt LiNO 3 -NaNO 3 -KNO 3 with MgO nanoparticles to prepare nanofluid via a two-step technique. The synthesis technique was concluded by heating the mixture of molten salt and MgO nanoparticles to 350 • C and ultrasonication time for 1 h. The effect of nanoparticles on thermal properties was studied with different sizes ranges of 20-100 nm, weight concentrations from 0.5 to 2.0 wt.%, and temperature.…”