Thermal conductivity of halide solid solutions: measurement and prediction

The composition dependence of the lattice thermal conductivity in NaCl-KCl solid solutions has been measured as a function of composition and temperature. Samples with systematically varied compositions were prepared and the laser flash technique was used to determine the thermal diffusivity from 373 K to 823 K. A theoretical model, based on the Debye approximation of phonon density of state (which contains no adjustable parameters) was used to predict the thermal conductivity of both stoichiometric compounds and fully disordered solid solutions. The predictions obtained with the model agree very well with our measurement. A general method for predicting the thermal conductivity of different halide systems is discussed.