RT3: Interfacial Phenomena in Molten Salt Environments
Thrust 3 investigates how molten salts interact with metals and model materials at liquid-solid interfaces, where structure, chemistry, and transport together determine corrosion, interfacial evolution, and materials compatibility.
Scientific Focus
Molten salt technologies depend on interfaces where salts meet metals and other materials. Thrust 3 examines these liquid-solid boundaries to understand how structure, chemistry, and transport combine to control interfacial reactions, including corrosion, mass transfer, and charge transfer.
This work is essential for building the scientific basis needed to design stable molten salt reactor systems and compatible containment materials. Even as the field advances, current theories and measurements do not yet fully capture how chemistry and structure influence one another at molten salt-materials interfaces. Predicting and controlling these interfaces requires a mechanistic picture that connects atomic-scale reactivity with larger-scale transport and structural change.
Transient, highly non-equilibrium conditions also play a central role. Minority species and evolving conditions, including impurities, fission products, corrosion products, nanoparticle formation, and interfacial structural evolution can shape both local reaction pathways and the broader changes of molten salt-materials interfaces.
Approach and Impact
MSEE approaches this challenge by coordinating experiments with modeling across length and time scales. The goal is to describe interfacial processes quantitatively, from the local chemical events that initiate reactions to the continuum-level transport processes that determine how interfaces evolve under molten salt conditions.
Because molten salt interfaces are difficult to probe directly, Thrust 3 emphasizes in-situ characterization supported by multimodal experimental strategies. These measurements are paired with models that incorporate the relevant physics and chemistry from the atomic scale to the continuum scale.
The resulting framework will help explain how molten salt-materials interfaces evolve under complex operating conditions. By advancing the ability to predict, control, and ultimately tailor these interfaces, Thrust 3 supports the development of more durable materials and more reliable molten salt reactor designs.
Thrust 3 Aims
Structure of the interfaces
Elucidate how molten salt ions are arranged near a solid-liquid interface.
Chemistry of the interfaces
Understand how the interfacial character of materials alters reaction kinetics.
Morphology of the interfaces
Measure, model, and predict how the fundamental interplay between physical events such as diffusion and chemical reactions determines microstructural change and materials corrosion.
