About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2027 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Materials and Chemistry for Molten Salt Systems
|
| Presentation Title |
A Connector Chamber Concentration Buffering Approach for Membrane-Free Molten Salt Electrochemical Cell Design |
| Author(s) |
Qiufeng Yang, Tae-Sic Yoo, Hojong Kim, Wonseok Yang, Stephanie Baldivieso, Guy Fredrickson |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Qiufeng Yang |
| Abstract Scope |
Spatial separation of anodic and cathodic electrolyte regions is fundamental to molten salt electrorefining and pyroprocessing, where selective drawdown and co-deposition depend on sustaining local concentration differences between electrode chambers. Conventional membrane and diaphragm separators provide this separation, but face significant material sustainability and compatibility limitations in molten salts. This work introduces a three-compartment cell — anode, connector, and cathode — where the intermediate connector chamber acts as a membrane-free geometric buffer for inter-compartment transport. An effective diffusivity, incorporating both molecular diffusion and convection and calibrated from zero-current experiments, serves as the primary current-independent transport parameter. A reduced-order Nernst-Planck compartment model explicitly separates diffusive and migratory flux contributions, yielding an exact closed-form solution via matrix exponential. Chamber-specific buffering numbers provide geometry-centered design metrics for cell sizing. Validation in aqueous CuSO₄ and molten FLiNaK–CeF₃–AlF₃ electrolytes confirms the predicted buffering behavior and demonstrates a practical membrane-free design framework for high-temperature electrochemical processing. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Other, Other, |