There is a specialty nickel powder which is a bit more costly, since it is is made by hydrogen reduction. Essentially this means that the nickel is refined in a process which itself could be gainful in energy, since hydrogen under heat and pressure are employed to refine it. The Sherritt Gordon company in Canada no longer makes this product, but it is still available.
Hunter Chemical LLC sells this Sherritt Gordon type, but almost everyone in LENR seems to be using Hunters other nickel process - the "AH" series which is a carbonyl process (reduction primarily by carbon instead of hydrogen). Notably - the AH nickel has a spikey surface which was formerly thought to be important - but the bottom line is that no one in LENR can make the spikey nickel work for excess heat, despite having "a nano-structured surface which looks like it ought to work" - at least no one has made Hunter-AH nickel work in a robust and repeatable way. So why would anyone suspect that the Sherritt Gordon processed nickel, would work? It looks very different under magnification and does not have the nano-structured spikes of the carbon-based product. Not sexy. So much for appearances. Could it be the case that hydrogen processing of nickel during manufacture in a key to success? Well, that is going too far, but as it turns out, Sherritt Gordon was the type of nickel used in the Thermacore "runaway" reaction. There was so little attention given to that incident by most in LENR, that the type of nickel involved was almost forgotten. If anyone out there has actually used the Sherritt Gordon nickel - please comment here. Extra‐High‐Purity Nickel Powder from Nickel Sulfate Solution by Hydrogen Reduction | | | Extra‐High‐Purity Nickel Powder from Nickel Sulfate Solution by Hydrogen Reduction | | |
