Development of a novel molten-salt filled with nanoparticles for concentration solar plants

Solar thermal power generation technologies are considered to be one of the most promising candidates for providing the clean and renewable energy needed in the future. Molten salt is one of the best heat transfer and thermal storage medium. This study will lay a foundation for the application of carbon nanotubes in molten salt which can remarkably improve the stability and capacity of thermal storage. Preliminary experiments found that adding nanoparticles provided an anomalous enhancement to the specific heat capacity of molten salt. In this paper, the interface thermal resistance theory is used to to explain the phenomenon of the significantly improved heat capacity, then investigate the factors which affect the mechanism of specific heat capacity enhancement.