Ys. Badyal et Ra. Howe, STRUCTURAL MODIFICATION IN MOLTEN-METAL CHLORIDE AND ALKALI CHLORIDE MIXTURES, Journal of physics. Condensed matter, 5(39), 1993, pp. 7189-7202
Structure factors have been measured by time-of-flight neutron diffrac
tion for NiCl2-KCl, NiCl2-LiCl and ZnCl2-LiCl binary molten salt mixtu
res. The results are consistent with those from earlier thermodynamic
and spectrophotometric studies, in which the degree of structural modi
fication was found to depend on the type of alkali cation. The NiCl2-L
iCl and ZnCl2-LiCl systems appear to be almost ideal admixtures of the
pure salts. However, adding KCl to NiCl2 results in enhancement of th
e local structure and intermediate range order. The first sharp diffra
ction peak at Q congruent-to 1 angstrom-1 in pure NiCl2, which is more
prominent than previously reported, appears to be enhanced by the add
ition of KCl up to a high concentration of alkali halide. No change is
apparent in NiCl2-LiCl or ZnCl2-LiCl.