-----Original Message----- From: MarkI-ZeroPoint > Then somebody suggested that NRL should try an alloy of 90% Pd and 10% Rh. > The very first such alloy cathode they tried yielded over 10,000 Joules of > excess thermal energy.... NRL christened this cathode with the name Eve...
There is an older backstory for the choice of rhodium, which goes back to Gene Mallove's famous article about the 5 isotopes of rhodium which showed up in 1992 as transmutation products. http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/MalloveEalchemynig.pdf As for rhodium being the "forbidden fruit" ... The appearance of rhodium in the ash when there is palladium in the cathode - indicates that the helium seen in LENR derives from alpha decay of Pd, which can happen in numerous ways via deuteron interactions and should happen with protium as well. ++ Palladium combining with deuterium and yielding hydrogen is generally a gamma-free reaction ++ so it fits in well with results of cold fusion. The Rhodium is not a reactant. Palladium is still the main reactant, with rhodium as a type of catalyst. Presumably, having a smaller amount of rhodium alloyed in the cathode will increases the QM probability (quantum entanglement effect) of the desired Pd+D reaction happening. Another alternative is that it is a Mills catalyst (but no one wants to hear that). This outcome of helium showing up from fission of Pd (actually alpha decay) was not popular with those who wanted to see deuterons fuse, instead of coming from alpha decay. That would arguably make the reaction "cold fission" instead of cold fusion. Then there was the Kevin Wolf episode... BTW - the reason this work with rhodium is probably a going nowhere, is that it was done before, and does not scale up. But good luck trying. It will be a huge surprise is they get over a watt of gain. QM effects generally do not scale up well ...
