Re: CF Expert?

2005-03-03 Thread Horace Heffner
At 7:51 AM 3/3/5, Robin van Spaandonk wrote:
>In reply to  Horace Heffner's message of Wed, 02 Mar 2005 10:52:52
>-0900:
>Hi,
>[snip]
>>It does say, "The kinetics of the process is unclear." though. The bubbles
>>of methane form on grain boundaries, and this requires diffusion of the
>>carbon.
>[snip]
>Perhaps, it is the methane which migrates after it is formed, not
>the carbon before the methane is formed.

The methane molecule would be a bit large to fit through the lattice.  Here
is an interesting table of atomic radii in angstroms:

   Atom   Covalent bonded

H  0.79   0.32

C  0.91   0.77

Si 1.46   1.11

The covalent radius of carbon, 0.77 angstroms, is slightly less that the
stand-alone atomic radius of hydrogen, 0.79 angstroms.  Adsorbed hydrogen
generally does not have room to fit in a lattice site, though it is close,
and this is evidenced by the degree of metal swelling as 1-1 hydrogen
loading is approached.  The ionically bonded electron associated with the
adsorbed hydrogen nucleus forms a "partial orbital" which maintains
pressure on the lattice, and vice versa.  By partial orbital it is meant a
fairly large probability of finding the paired electron in an orbital and
the complimentary probability of finding the paired electron in a
conduction band.  The adsorbed hydrogen volume is thus slightly reduced
from that of an atom with a 0.79 angstrom radius.

Now for some conjectures.

It is notable that the covalent carbon radius is slightly less than the
hydrogen atomic radius.  This means that carbon should be able to diffuse
through a lattice about as easily as hydrogen, provided adjacent metal
atoms can easily exchange covalent bonds with the carbon so as to allow it
to advance when a pressure gradient is present, as in the close vicinity to
a crack in the metal.

It seems like some ways to reduce hydrogen embrittlement might be to avoid
carbon steels, or alloys having metals the form hydrides, like Ni or Pd.
Also, quenching in liquids conatining hydrogen or carbon may not be so
good.  It may be that LN would be a good quenching agent, but since it has
an atomic radius of only 0.75 angstroms, it would be suspect for forming
ammonia bubbles in a hydrogen loaded lattice similar in properties to
methane bubbles.  Silicon can form silane gas, similar to methane.
However, silicon's atomic and covalent radii prevent it from diffusing.
Silicon steels thus migth be a good choice for avoiding fast embrittlement
if other bad things are not present in the alloy.

If hydrogen can get into any material, however, it just seems like some
lattice damage is likely to result.  One way to keep hydrogen out is to
impose a barrier.  For room temperature applications a copper coating might
do the trick.  Copper can readily adsorb H at 600 deg. C though, and if
quickly cooled lots of tiny spherical bubbles of hydrogen are formed in the
copper.  This might offer a useful way to prepare CF electrodes for
bombardment, by loading at high temperature and cooling prior to particle
or x-ray bombardment or other fusion triggering means.  It also raises the
question of what additional or unsuspected metals might be CF active at
ceramic oven temperatures.  New possibilites for annealing and reloading
are also provided by use of high temperatures.

Regards,

Horace Heffner  




Re: CF Expert?

2005-03-02 Thread Steven Krivit
I have his CV - yep,  it's Oriani

W.R. Whitney Award (1987) winner: Richard Oriani.
Bingo. He is indeed an expert in CF.
- Jed



Re: CF Expert?

2005-03-02 Thread Robin van Spaandonk
In reply to  Horace Heffner's message of Wed, 02 Mar 2005 10:52:52
-0900:
Hi,
[snip]
>It does say, "The kinetics of the process is unclear." though. The bubbles
>of methane form on grain boundaries, and this requires diffusion of the
>carbon.  
[snip]
Perhaps, it is the methane which migrates after it is formed, not
the carbon before the methane is formed.

Regards,


Robin van Spaandonk

All SPAM goes in the trash unread.



Re: CF Expert?

2005-03-02 Thread Horace Heffner
At 9:12 AM 3/2/5, Terry Blanton wrote:
>One of the first engineering tasks I had while still in school was to find
>out why a steel conveyor chain for my employer was failing.  Long story,
>but the short answer was hydrogen embrittlement in the electroplating
>process.  This was in 1975.
>
>Since then I keep checking to see if anyone has figured out the mechanism
>for hydrogen embrittlement (they really haven't.)  In the googling process
>I stumbled across the chemical industry expert witness site.  Check this
>one out:


It looks to be fairly well covered and understood in *Topics in Physics Vol
72 - Hydrogen in Metals III*", Edited by Helmut Wipf, Springer-Verlag, ISBN
3-540-61639-X, 1997, pp 221 ff.

Interestingly, one of the processes, called "hydrogen attack", is due to
carbides forming methane:

   FeC + 2H2 --> CH4 + 3 Fe

"The pressure of methane increases parabolically with the pressure of hydrogen."

It does say, "The kinetics of the process is unclear." though. The bubbles
of methane form on grain boundaries, and this requires diffusion of the
carbon.  A graph of the pressure vs temperature boundary below which the
embirttlement does not occur is given. It goes on to say that hydrogen
attack is not limited to carbides, but can be due to other reactions
leading to bubble formation, for example hydrogen combining with oxides or
oxygen bubbles to form water.  It goes on to describe other mechanisms,
like metal hydride formation, and physics of crack growth, etc.

Regards,

Horace Heffner  




Re: CF Expert?

2005-03-02 Thread Jed Rothwell
Blanton wrote:
Check this one out:
>http://chemindustry.intota.com/viewbio.asp?mode=&bioFile=/xml/biofull/603 
226data.xml&bioID=603226&strQuery=high-strength+steel<

or
http://tinyurl.com/6f4n3
Particularly, "COLD FUSION. Expert is familiar with several aspects of 
cold fusion."
The expert is not named, but in the age of Google that is absurd. The 
expert received the W.R. Whitney Award in 1987. See:

http://www.nace.org/nace/content/awards/whitneyrecpt.asp
W.R. Whitney Award (1987) winner: Richard Oriani.
Bingo. He is indeed an expert in CF.
- Jed



CF Expert?

2005-03-02 Thread Terry Blanton
One of the first engineering tasks I had while still in school was to find out why a steel conveyor chain for my employer was failing.  Long story, but the short answer was hydrogen embrittlement in the electroplating process.  This was in 1975.
 
Since then I keep checking to see if anyone has figured out the mechanism for hydrogen embrittlement (they really haven't.)  In the googling process I stumbled across the chemical industry expert witness site.  Check this one out:
 
>http://chemindustry.intota.com/viewbio.asp?mode=&bioFile=/xml/biofull/603226data.xml&bioID=603226&strQuery=high-strength+steel<
 
or 
 
http://tinyurl.com/6f4n3
 
Particularly, "COLD FUSION. Expert is familiar with several aspects of cold fusion."
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