| Abstract Scope |
Molten salts play a critical role in advanced energy and nuclear technologies, yet their characterization remains challenging due to high temperatures, material compatibility, and inert atmosphere requirements. To overcome these barriers and enable high-throughput analysis, the Molten salt Ultrafast Spectroscopy Characterization Laboratory (MUSCL) has developed a suite of custom tools over the past five years. These include a compact high-temperature optical furnace, a small-volume salt sampling method, and both fiber-optic and free-space optical setups. Applied across various chloride salts, these techniques support rapid measurements for thermophysical properties, elemental and isotopic monitoring, and molecular analysis. Methods featured include UV-VIS absorption, transient absorption, Raman, plasma emission, and THz spectroscopy. Together, they demonstrate the growing potential of optical spectroscopy for high-throughput, low-volume molten salt experimentation. These advances offer new insights into salt chemistry and materials interactions, opening the door to faster, more scalable investigations in molten salt systems. |