Hi Bob,
Yes - good observation and I should have brought this up earlier (but
the posting was too long to begin with). A mechano-alloy would never be
uniform and would be an admixture of grains.
The fact that nickel and silver are mutually insoluble means that one
would have to abandon any hope of D+D fusion in a matrix as the main
operative mechanism for gain. But of course, that is a given when you do
not use deuterium - and thus, anything related to Ni-H has already
abandoned the possibility of fusion resulting in helium.
It would be an insurmountable problem if the criterion for success of a
metal matrix were to be only the inter-atomic spacing of the alloy and
the strengthening against cracks. Thus the analogy to Type A Pd (when
compared to Ni-Ag) is not strong unless there is more going-on than
fusion. In fact it is a weak analogy if we do not accept a compound
process which involves "densification".
In the end, what I am proposing is that silver is special for its
nuclear properties - and anything else is simply a bonus. That would
imply that the fact that it works well with palladium could be twofold,
and involves not only fusion but more. I hate to keep bringing up
Holmlid, but his findings are the key to both Ni-H and Pd-D, from my
perspective.
In both cases (Pd-D or Ni-H) - anomalous thermal gain is explained as a
two-step process, which must first involve the conversion of the normal
hydrogen molecule into the dense atomic form. With Pd-D, this would mean
that UDD (aka "pychno") is a necessary first step -- following which
which UDD can fuse or it can react in other ways. But with Ni-H... where
the nickel is a mechano-alloy with silver, with crude spacing and dirty
grains, the operative reaction would be very different and probably
involves the "quasi-neutron."
Importantly, silver could promote densification. We see this possibility
most clearly in the Mills SunCell. Mills goes to great lengths in his
most recent patent application to explain how silver does this, since
the element was not one of his original catalysts and was avoided for
many years.
This probably means that the delay which Mills BLP seems to be currently
experiencing (in a meaningful public demo, and in the rumor mill)
relates to gamma radiation following silver activation. The activation
in not due to a real neutron, but to UDH (hydrino) as a surrogate neutron.
On 6/19/2017 8:23 AM, Bob Higgins wrote:
Jones, As you have discussed, the Type A Pd that appears to be LENR
active is an actual alloy. In an alloy you expect an atomic level
crystal lattice alteration - the lattice constants of the alloy are
uniform and different than with Pd alone. However, what you describe
as a "mechanical alloy" is unlikely to be anything other than an
admixture of grains of Ag with grains of Ni. An "alloy" and a
"mechanical alloy" are two vastly different things. It is sort of
like the nickel silver not having any silver - the mechanical alloy
has no alloy.
True alloying would alter the lattice constants by creating a new
crystal structure incorporating the alloy metal at the basic atomic
crystallographic level; hopefully in a way that allows more H to enter
the lattice. Also, forming a true alloy would potentially lower the
vacancy formation energy of the Ni; which, in some theories would
raise the LENR rate. OTOH, if a "mechanical alloy" is formed, the
only difference achieved will be creation of dirty grain boundaries
between solid grains of Ni and Ag. It is possible that effects could
occur at such grain boundaries, so it can't hurt to try. It is just
hard to envision what would promote LENR by creating a "mechanical alloy".
On Sun, Jun 18, 2017 at 6:10 PM, Jones Beene <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
One further detail about the possible advantage of using silver
alloyed with nickel in LENR, instead of pure nickel - with
hydrogen as the gaseous reactant, instead of deuterium.
If this were to work for LENR gain, the identity of the nuclear
reaction is not the same. Obviously, such an alloy as Ni-Ag
(assuming it is made via mechanical alloying)... would be unlikely
to produce helium from fusion, as happens in Pd-D... since there
is no deuterium (although a alpha emission following proton
nuclear tunneling is not ruled out.) But there is an ideal
alternative reaction.
First - a detail which you may not be aware of is the composition
of control rods in nuclear fission reactors going back 50 years.
As it turns out - silver has been commonly used as an alloy in
control rods, along with boron. Part of the explanation is here
but there is more to it than meets the eye. Silver is like a
magnet for neutrons more so than any other element across the
entire spectrum.
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph241/grayson1/
<http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph241/grayson1/>
In short, silver has a high cross section for neutrons of all
energies whereas boron and cadmium and other absorbents generally
work with neutrons of a narrow energy range. Silver wants them all
and this could imply more, if Ag works with nickel.
But where are the neutrons to being with? - oops - there are none,
or so it seems.
But lets broaden this suggestion to include Holmlid's results.
Holmlid shows that UDH can be made simply by flowing hydrogen over
a catalyst. If so then we could end up with a neutron substitute,
which is the so-called "quasi-neutron".
This presumed particle is larger than a neutron, but otherwise
could be a substitute. This quasi-neutron could also be what Widom
and Larsen are claiming as an active particle of LENR.
The crux of the issue is this. Silver has a high cross-section for
neutrons of all energies and the quasi neutron could also favor
silver - but this is not proved. If it happens, the energy of the
gamma should be less, since the mass-energy of UDH is less. Also
the half-life following activation is very short and there is
little or no residual radioactivity.
Jones
Much has been said about Type A palladium and its special
reactivity with hydrogen, some of which is due to the alloy
being one fourth silver. Since pure palladium doesn't work as
well, it might be said that most of the reactivity seen in
cold fusion has been due to the special properties of the
alloy, which is a 3:1 ratio (75% Pd 25% Ag).
In many ways, nickel can be considered to be a surrogate of
palladium. Nickel resides directly under Pd in the Periodic
table, and has an identical valence electron structure. This
leads one to wonder about an alloy of nickel and silver, based
on transposing the results of cold fusion to protium, instead
of deuterium.
Unfortunately, in the historical context - and going back 300
years in metallurgy, the term "nickel silver" refers to a well
known alloy of copper, nickel and zinc which contains zero
silver. Essentially, nickel silver is a brass alloy that looks
like much like the more expensive silver and is much stronger
and more durable - making it a great substitute for most
common uses.
This old alloy was created to serve exactly the same purpose
as silver for attractive shinny flatware but not as
prohibitively expensive - about 20 times less expensive per
unit of weight than silver. This semantic confusion did not
lead to neglect of finding a real alloy of nickel and silver
since these two metals are indeed mutually insoluble. They do
not mix. That kind of insolubility is somewhat unusual in
itself for metals so similar - but basically the two metals do
NOT alloy by melting together as is commonly done.
However, this proposed LENR alloy which I will call "Type A
Nickel" in the 3:1 ratio has been studied in another context -
and found to have exceptional properties for water splitting.
To accomplish this they had to go to extraordinary lengths to
achieve an alloy. There are very few papers on this because of
the lack of a commercial alloy which can be purchased.
BUT ... there is a strong suspicion that "Type A Nickel" could
be special for replacing pure nickel in LENR. This assumes
that silver is reactive in its own right for a nuclear
reaction, such as in the protonation reaction Robin mentioned
in another thread.
BTW - In the paper "Nickel–silver alloy electrocatalysts for
hydrogen evolution and oxidation in an alkaline electrolyte"
Tang and others showed that the NiAg alloy is an excellent
catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Based on the
free energy of adsorbed hydrogen, theory predicts that alloys
of nickel and silver are very active for these type of hydride
reactions and they are. The alloy is just hard to make or
else you would have heard about it before now.
Basically - the Type A Nickel could work better for NiH
reactions than nickel, since it is twice as reactive for water
splitting (as defined in their test) which needs to be proven
out. This testing has been neglected in the past - due to the
lack of electrodes... for which there is a work-around. That
is what I propose to add: an easy work around at least for
some experiments.
My suggestion to anyone contemplating a gas phase reaction is
to try mixing nickel-black and silver-black in a high speed
ball mill, in a ratio of 3:1 --- where mechanical alloying is
expected. Then, use this composite powder instead of nickel.
Mechanical alloying is special in its own way and could add
something akin to surface treatment.
Electrolysis reactions would be more difficult to accomplish
with powder - and since this proposed work-around for
silver/nickel insolubility involves metal powders and
mechanical alloying a different geometry would be needed for
the cell. However, powder has been used for electrolysis
electrodes before (as a colloid) - and it could be worth the
effort.
