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.
