The whole tie-in with road salt does a very poor job of explaining what is going on in the refrigeration cycle the work described - it's not totally unrelated,

The whole tie-in with road salt does a very poor job of explaining what is going on in the refrigeration cycle the work described - it's not totally unrelated, but the relationship is not particularly obvious. The refrigeration cycle works by adding a salt (NaI, or sodium iodide to an ionic solvent, ethylene carbonate). This lowers the melting point of the salt below the temperature of the solvent, and the salt consequently absorbs heat from the solvent in order to overcome it energy of fusion, thus cooling the solvent. The the resulting temperature deficit relative to the environment can be transferred thermally to a cold reservoir. Subsequently, they use electro-dialysis to remove the salt from the "used" solvent, and recrystalize the salt, yielding fresh solvent and salt so the cycle can be repeated. Relative to what happens with road salt, the salt in the refrigerator is playing the role of the road ice, and the solvent is playing the role of the liquid water with dissolved sodium chloride that forms on the ice when you salt the road. The reason that water forms is because the road salt, which is relatively dark due to impurities, absorbs solar energy melting a thin layer of water, or tire friction on the salt-ice combination does so, or because there is slushy liquid water already present.