Development and comparison of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphite nanoflakes dispersed solar salt: Structural formation and thermophysical properties

A Molten salt energy storage has proven to be a promising candidate for medium and high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES) applications. Improving the thermophysical properties, such as specific heat capacity (Cp) and thermal conductivity (k) is crucial to deciding the charging/discharging characteristics of the energy storage system. In this study, 1 wt% of two variant carbon allotropes, such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphite nanoflakes (GNFs), were dispersed in solar salt (i.e., MWCNTs nanosalt and GNFs nanosalt) using wet preparation method. Thermophysical properties of the prepared nanosalts were evaluated using different analytical techniques and compared with pristine solar salt. The specific heat capacity was measured from 50 °C to 350 °C, and the maximum specific heat capacity enhancement in 1 wt% of MWCNTs dispersed solar salt was 18 %. The enhancement in 1 wt% of GNFs dispersed solar salt was 12.5 % at 200 °C (in solid phase). Similarly, in the liquid phase (at 350 °C), MWCNTs dispersed solar salt improves Cp by 6.2 %, while GNFs dispersed solar salt exhibits negligible improvement in Cp. Further, a modified transient plane source (MTPS) technique was used to measure the thermal conductivity of both carbon nanosalts in the solid phase (30–100 °C). The maximum thermal conductivity enhancement observed for MWCNTs dispersed solar salt and GNFs dispersed solar salt was 5.8 % and 11.7 %. Finally, thermogravimetric analysis was conducted to evaluate the thermal stability of the MWCNTs nanosalt and GNFs nanosalt at a maximum temperature of 700 °C, and found that the MWCNTs nanosalt show better thermal stability than the GNFs nanosalt.