Semi-empirical model for Henry’s law constant of noble gases in molten salts

Journal Article · Tue Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-60006-9· OSTI ID:2376387

Lee, Kyoung O. ^[1]; Williams, Wesley C. ^[1]; McFarlane, Joanna ^[1]; Kropaczek, David ^[1]; de Wet, Dane ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Henry’s law constant, which describes the proportionality of dissolved gas to partial pressure of free gas in liquid–gas equilibrium systems, can also be applied to mass transport applications. In this work, we investigated an approach for determining the solubility of noble gases in a molten salt liquid utilizing the equilibrium concept of Henry’s gas constant. Henry’s gas constant is described as a mathematical function dependent on the van der Waals radius of the noble gas and the temperature of the molten salt. The alteration in Gibbs free energy encompasses contributions from both surface and volume energies. Enthalpy and entropy are deduced from these surface and volume energies in the Gibbs free energy formulation. A comparative analysis was conducted between the conventional method and our proposed model. Moreover, useful chemical properties can be determined from examination of surface and volume energies. Our findings provide an accurate and general theory of Gibbs free energy that can be validated experimentally based on the model proposed herein. This work unifies the prediction of Henry gas constant and subsequently the entropy and enthalpy calculation for noble gases in a molten salt solution to a single functional form using van der Waals radius of the gas and temperature of the system. This functional form is then used to perform a multiple regression method to find two parameters corresponding to the surface energy and volume energy. These two parameters are consistent between all combinations of noble gas and molten salt.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 2376387
• Journal Information: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 14; ISSN 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY