| Abstract Scope |
Molten salt performance is strongly governed by impurity speciation, purification process, and redox condition. This work presents a quantitative framework for correlating molten salt purification strategies with measurable changes in impurity concentrations, redox evolution, and corrosion response in purified salts. Emphasis is placed on the quantification of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, sulfur, and metallic impurities, including the thermodynamic and chemical mechanisms controlling their formation, removal, and persistence in molten salt environments. Best practices for impurity analysis will be discussed, with focus on combustion analysis, inert gas fusion analysis, recovery percentage, calibration strategy, sampling-induced variability, and interpretation of salt-to-salt differences. Corrosion results from purified salts will be used to identify key governing factors that control material degradation, including residual impurity concentrations, redox-active species, and purification-dependent salt chemistry. These relationships provide an engineering basis for optimizing purification processes, improving chemistry control, and supporting component lifetime assessment in molten salt systems. |