Liquidus line predictions in binary molten salt systems

The molten salts proposed to be used in small modular reactors and thermal energy storage systems are typically multicomponent systems. Knowledge of the liquidus line in such systems is crucial because it allows one to determine what operating conditions can be used without risk of a solid phase precipitating out. In this talk, we demonstrate that the common tangent construction can be used in molecular dynamics to obtain predictions of the liquidus line. Using the prototype binary salt NaCl-MgCl2 and a rigid ion model, we find the relevant free energies for the common tangent construction using thermodynamic integration to an ideal gas in a two-step pathway to obtain predictions in good agreement with experiment.