Anticipated Start Date: ASAP

Estimated Pay: $15.00 per hour

Schedule: Flexible. 20 hours per week. Position ends on  07/21/25.

Location: Newark Campus

Internship in Chemical Engineering: Physical Characterization of Molten Salts

Project mentors: Dr Benjamin Thompson and Prof. Norman Wagner, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware

Molten salt systems play a vital role as liquid fuel media and heat transfer fluids in advanced power generation and energy storage technologies. Accurate measurements of the thermophysical properties of molten salts are essential for modeling and designing next-generation molten salt nuclear reactors (MSRs). This paid internship provides an exciting opportunity to work on a Department of Energy funded project to develop new instrumentation for characterizing thermophysical properties of molten salts, specifically measurements of surface tension and density at elevated temperatures. It will involve working alongside scientists and research engineers from UD and STF Technologies to construct a prototype instrument, design experimental procedures and perform validation measurements on model systems.

Key Responsibilities:

• Construct Instrumentation: Work alongside scientists and engineers to construct a device capable of performing measurements of surface tension and density at high temperatures.

• Design Experiment Procedures: Perform measurements using model systems and optimize the experimental protocols, data processing and analysis.

• Evaluate Instrument Performance: Measurements at ambient conditions can be compared to those from other instruments (e.g., Attension Sigma 700) to validate the prototype instrument, and measurements at high temperature can be compared to literature data.

This internship is ideal for students interested in instrument design, chemistry, and materials science, offering hands-on experience in designing and optimizing instrumentation and experiments, and measuring thermophysical properties of molten salts. Interested students can contact Dr. Benjamin Thompson (bthompsn@udel.edu) directly.

Applicants must be undergraduate students at the University of Delaware. Work study eligibility can be found here. Applicants who are not enrolled as undergraduate students at the University will not be considered for this position. Employment Limitations and Exceptions