In response to:
> "However, as I recall there is a story floating around that a certain
batch of Pd from the supplier seemed to work best. If that is true then
the energy storage might have happened prior to the experiment when the
Pd was processed by the supplier.”
This subject comes up periodically. Here is a compiled answer from past
posts, many by Jed:
Type A Palladium alloy from Johnson Matthey (JM) was designed for
hydrogen gas purification since it essentially acts like porous membrane
for hydrogen only. The Pd75Ag25 alloy is used for this purpose because
it does not crack or distort upon absorption of hydrogen. The alloy is
also treated with ammonia to partially load hydrogen from the start and
then annealed.
This alloy was designed to have structural integrity under high loading
for hydrogen filters and this level of robustness happens to be the
quality needed for cold fusion. A main reason that cold fusion is
difficult to reproduce is because when bulk palladium without the silver
loads with deuterium, it cracks, bends, distorts and it will not load
above a certain level . . .
Note: the details about avoiding cracks can actually argue against the
theory of Storms about the need for cracks but there is a way to
rationalize both. You can find it in Storms book.
Fleischmann wrote: Most of our own investigations have been carried out
with a material which we have described as Johnson Matthey Material Type
A. This is prepared by melting under a blanket gas of cracked ammonia
so that the concentrations of five key classes of impurities are being
controlled. Electrodes are then produced by a succession of steps of
square rolling, round rolling and, finally, drawing with appropriate
annealing steps in the production cycle. [M. Fleischmann, Proc. ICCF-7,
p. 121].
Note: rolling and drawing also reduces cracks.
The ammonia atmosphere leaves a population of hydrogen in the palladium
which controls recrystallization. Unfortunately, this material is now
very difficult to acquire and there is practically none left in the
world, because Johnson Matthey stopped making it several years ago.
Palladium for diffusion tubes (filter tubes) is now made using a
different process in which the palladium is melted under argon.
Material made with the newer technique might also work satisfactorily in
cold fusion experiments, but Fleischmann never had an opportunity to
test it, so he did not advocate this. Johnson Matthey has offered to
make more of the older style Type A for use in cold fusion experiments.
They will reportedly charge ~$50,000 per ingot...
It should be noted that several researchers are convinced that the
silver addition is also a reactant in some undefined nuclear way. Both
palladium, silver and nickel are catalysts for the Mills version of
dense hydrogen/deuterium - and that is not likely to coincidental.
