Solar salt doped by MWCNTs as a promising high thermal conductivity material for CSP

Abstract

frequency peak of the sample with 0.3% doping was red-shifted, and for the other samples was blue-shifted. The SEM images showed that the sample with 0.3% doping was the most uniformly dispersed. When the doping amounts are appropriate, the improvement in thermal conductivity may be attributed to two reasons: (1) the MWCNTs can be uniformly dispersed, as the SEM shows; (2) tiny thermally conductive channels may be formed on the interface between the molten salt and the MWCNTs, thereby generating a boundary effect. This kind of composite material may help improve solar heat storage and heat transfer capacity, and thereby increase the efficiency of solar thermal power generation.