Absorption of Light by Binary Mixtures of Molten Salts

Abstract

STUDIES of the absorption of light by fused salts have been essentially of two types. The first concerns pure molten salts, many of which display a simple absorption spectrum with an absorption edge dividing light of longer wavelengths, to which the salt is transparent, from light of shorter wavelengths which is absorbed. Studies of the temperature variation of this absorption edge go back to Retchinsky¹ and more recent work has been conducted on the detailed structure of the absorption edge in nitrates². In the second the fused salt is simply a transparent solvent in which the absorption spectrum due to electronic transitions within dissolved species can be studied; an example is the study of transition metal ions dissolved in an LiCl-KCl eutectic mixture³.