Superatoms are clusters of atoms that seem to exhibit some of the properties of elemental atoms.
IMHO, superatoms are fundamental to LENR. These clusters of atoms provide a way to substitute and amplify the effects of a particular LENR responsive element. The amplification of LENR effects all depends in the way that the electrons behaves in these clusters. As an example, Superatom clusters could serve as building blocks for new materials that are cheaper and more effective than materials currently being used in LENR. Read more at: http://phys.org/news199634925.html#jCp Electron configuration is the key to mimicking phenomenon. It has be shown that certain combinations of elemental atoms have electron configurations that mimic those of other elements. The researchers also showed that the atoms that have been identified so far in these mimicry events can be predicted simply by looking at the periodic table. "We started working with titanium monoxide (TiO) and much to our surprise we saw the TiO was isoelectronic (having very similar electronic configurations) with nickel," Castleman said. "This amazed us because we started seeing behaviors where TiO looked like nickel. We thought this must just be a chance happening." As an example, Titanium monoxide has a melting point of 1750 °C. In the Rossi reactor, TiO might replace nickel to provide an even higher operating temperature. I believe that clusters of cesium atoms provide the amplification of thermionic effects seen in the Rossi reactor. Acting like a single superatom. some 10,000 individual atoms combine together to amply the positive charge accumulation to produce a High Density Charge Cluster (HDCC). In deuterium palladium LENR, superatom substitution is also possible. Zirconium oxide is isoelectronic with palladium, and tungsten carbide which is also isoelectronic with palladium. This is why Zirconium oxide and tungsten carbide will work just as well as palladium in a D/Pd system. Superatoms mimicking other elements can be predicted by simple arithmetic. Titanium, for example, has four outer-shell electrons, atomic oxygen has six, so move six elements to the right of titanium and you're at nickel, whose 10 outer-shell electrons make it isoelectronic with titanium oxide. So why use a different element if the actual element is available? First, the element mimic might be less expensive, as in the case of palladium, which, at $100 a gram. At two cents a gram, zirconium oxide would be a worthy substitute. Cheers: Axil
