CEEM Seminar Series | Jinsuo Zhang | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | Liquid metal and molten salt: their chemistry and corrosion
Liquid metal and molten salt: their chemistry and corrosion
Liquid metal and molten salt have broad applications in high-temperature energy systems such as energy thermal storage, concentrated solar energy and advanced nuclear energy. Both liquid lead and molten salt are corrosive to most of the structural materials. However, their corrosion mechanisms are different because of their unique chemistries. For example, most of the oxides of steel components are stable in liquid lead but unstable in molten salt. The seminar will discuss their corrosion mechanisms and the corrosion process, and then will analyze the liquid/solid interfacial interactions including material dissolution, oxidation and liquid penetration which results in material corrosion and degradation. The seminar will also discuss how to mitigate the corrosion by controlling the liquid chemistry through active oxygen control for liquid lead, redox potential control for molten salt and salt purification.
Jinsuo Zhang
Zhang has been a professor of the Nuclear Engineering program in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University since January 2017. He was an associate professor at the Ohio State University (OSU) from September 2012 to December 2016. Before that, Zhang was a staff scientist of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from 2004 to 2012, and a postdoc research associate from 2001 to 2004. Zhang is the director of the Nuclear Materials and Fuel Cycle Research Center. The center focuses on studies of advanced used nuclear fuel reprocessing, safeguards and non-proliferation, nuclear materials, material compatibility and materials corrosion in advanced and current nuclear reactors.