Thermal conductivity of molten alkali halides: Temperature and density dependence

The thermal conductivities of a series of molten alkali halides have been evaluated by using molecular dynamics simulation within the framework of Fumi-Tosi potential models. Although the calculated results showed 0%-50% larger values than experimental results depending on system, they are in agreement with each other in showing both negative temperature and ionic mass dependence. In order to clarify the cause of the negative temperature dependence in more detail, the thermal conductivity under constant temperature or constant density was evaluated for all alkali chlorides and all sodium halides. The calculations reveal that the thermal conductivity depends strongly on density but only weakly on temperature. While the integrated value of the autocorrelation function for energy current increases with temperature, this is canceled out by the reciprocal temperature factor in relation to the thermal conductivity. With increasing density the integrated value increases, and this dominates the behavior of the thermal conductivity. By repeating the calculations with different ionic masses, we have concluded that the thermal conductivity is a function of m(-1/2)(N/V)(2/3), where m is the geometric mean of ionic mass between anion and cation and N/V is the number density.