Wetting of polarized materials by molten carbonate

This paper presents a summary of our recent work on wetting of polarized materials by molten carbonate, also termed “electrowetting”. Electrowetting is here defined as wetting of conducting materials by ionic liquids under conditions of Faradaic reaction, that is, current load. Our recent work has focused on three issues of practical importance: (1) the effect of alkaline-earth (Ca, Sr, Ba) additions to simple alkali carbonate eutectics with respect to the wetting characteristics of the melt; (2) the driving force behind the meniscus movement of molten carbonate at electrodes under polarization; (3) the effect of changes in wetting characteristics such as caused by alkaline-earth addition on molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) performance. These three issues are briefly summarized by means of a few key experimental and computational results, with reference to more detailed communications now in process of publication.