Methodological Approaches to Troubleshooting and Enhancing Molten Salt Electrochemical Experiments

Molten salt electrochemistry has not been widely studied compared to aqueous and ionic liquids, and an experimental methodology to perform those experiments is crucial to the molten salt community. One of the main challenges in performing these experiments is the inability to visualize the position of the electrodes or the condition of the molten bath. In some cases, the placement of electrodes and the temperature of the molten bath can raise problems when the electrodes are not in contact with the molten salt or when the electrodes are in direct contact with each other. This methodology study investigates scenarios where a molten salt experiment can fail. This methodology study also provides new approaches to enhance and provide more accurate results when performing electrochemical analysis in molten salts to obtain prominent properties, such as the diffusion coefficient. Even though this paper does not involve determining those properties, it provides general guidelines and suggestions to improve the quality of electrochemical data and troubleshoot experimental setups.