Enhancement of Molten Nitrate Thermal Properties by Reduced Graphene Oxide and Graphene Quantum Dots

Abstract

Eutectic molten salts are the most studied medium-high temperature thermal energy storage material due to their potential use in concentrated solar power plants. The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of using reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) on the thermal properties of eutectic molten salts. A binary nitrate eutectic mixture of NaNO 3 and KNO 3 was selected as a base material (BM) for nitrate/carbon-derivative composites. RGO and GQDs were individually mixed with the BM with different fractions ranged from 0.1 to 1.5 wt %. The results showed that RGO enhanced the thermal conductivity, heat of fusion, and total thermal energy storage capacity by 52.10%, 44.48%, and 10.44%, respectively. GQDs slightly improved the specific heat capacity for both solid and liquid phases by 2.53% and 3.13%, respectively. In addition, GQDs promoted the heat of fusion by 31.72% and raised the total TES capacity by 12.26%.

Systematic study of physicochemical and electrochemical properties of carbon nanomaterials

“…These researches assisted in the knowledge of the link between the structural and electrochemical characteristics of carbon-based electrodes, pointing to the possible use of carbon nanomaterial films in biosensing, energy conversion, biomedical, and other electronic systems. 38 In the edge and basal planes, which are critical to the behaviour of graphitic electrodes, chemical and electrochemical reactivities differ dramatically. Furthermore, edge plane-like flaws at their basal planes are called defect sites, which might influence the electron structure and hence the density of electronic states (DOS).…”