Abstract
Molten salts that melt at low temperature and are stable at high temperature would be very useful for solar thermal energy applications. We have investigated the chemical stability of low-melting, ternary molten salt mixtures of NaNO 3, KNO 3 and either Ca(NO 3) 2 or LiNO 3 and determined the types of decomposition products formed under equilibrium conditions. The initial decomposition reaction, nitrate ⇆ nitrite + oxygen, proceeds to approximately the same extent in ternary mixtures as in an equimolar binary mixture of NaNO 3 and KNO 3. Decomposition at high temperature was due to reactions of nitrite and nitrate that yield oxide ions. The latter reactions were strongly dependent on the composition of ternary mixtures and it was found that mixtures containing lithium nitrate were more stable than those containing calcium nitrate. Although ternary mixtures are less stable than the binary mixture, they appear to be useable at relatively high temperatures.
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