Daniel Maguire

ICO CDT
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Cambridge

Sponsor: EPSRC

Atomic scale dynamics of molten salts

Molten Salts have great potential for use as heat transfer and storage media including use in solar-thermal systems and as the coolant of proposed safer and more efficient Generation IV nuclear reactors. This is due to their desirable properties, such as high liquid temperature ranges compared to water and their flexibility to accommodate technologies such as dissolved liquid nuclear fuels and on-line reprocessing. Despite their potential, precise study of their thermo-fluid-dynamic properties remain scarce.

This project aimed to combine computational Molecular Dynamics simulations, Density Functional Theory-based ab initio chemical shielding calculations and High-Temperature experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance with a bespoke instrument setup to accurately probe Molten Salts' thermo-fluid-dynamic properties to model and predict their behaviours in nuclear reactor and alike environments.

Achievements

Published a collaborative paper with Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics.

Collaborating with many people, including research groups in Cambridge as well as Shanghai, China; Berkeley USA; and possibly South Korea in the future.