Bob - I’m simply trying to present options at this point. It is impossible to draw any valid conclusions since the data is conflicting.
Zinc would be less compelling as a reactant if it were not a Mills catalyst with the lowest Rydberg “hole” in addition to its volatility. Thus it can **do no harm** to add zinc – and it could have properties of interest. There is almost no downside risk. The best thing that can come out of this thread is for an experimenter to add 8-10% zinc into a fuel mix in order to get data which will either validate what Parkhomov thinks is there, or if the result is null – to write-off the possibility of zinc as a reactant. Because of the Mills’ connection, and the volatility of zinc, and the fact that it appears possible for it to have been active in the Sochi data -- I think there would be a strong likelihood of improvement, compared to nickel alone. From: Bob Cook Jones-- Your argument about Zn volatility has some merit. However, from the data it would appear that the Zn in the “before reaction” laser activation test migrated to the cooler parts of the reactor and were not measured in the “after reaction” laser activation test. This is the opposite of what I think you are suggesting.. Bob, If a particular test or type of analysis is sampling the surface, but is done in such a way that a natural mechanism can bring mobile elements from deep inside a structure up to the surface, then the more volatile components could appear to have much higher concentration than they should. From: Bob Cook If I am not wrong, the laser activation indicates Zn is 0.004 mass % vs the suggested 4%—more than an order of magnitude LOW!—more like 3 orders Low! I checked the table of mass % and it adds to 100 percent. From: <mailto:eric.wal...@gmail.com> Eric Walker I do not think there was any report of very much Zn in the fuel. If there was Zn-64 in the samples tested it was not apparent from the report. In fact as I noted yesterday, Zn was on the order of .01 percent. It was not anyway reported near 4 % per my review of the AP report translated by Higgins. . As I attempted to show, even though the total amount of zinc reported in the ICP-MS analysis was small, it was of an order of magnitude to potentially explain part of the mass 64 balance.
