Hi Russ - Yes, that may be true, but Mizuno did not talk about sputtering during the final deposition. Should we presume there was a bias and a deuterium plasma? I hate missing details.
On Mon, Sep 4, 2017 at 10:16 AM, Russ George <[email protected]> wrote: > Bob, > > > > One can sputter the daylight with Pd in a simple D2 plasma under very > simple conditions! > > > > *From:* Bob Higgins [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Monday, September 4, 2017 11:42 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [Vo]:Mizuno latest > > > > Jed, can I make a request? Acknowledging your fluency in Japanese and > relationship with Mizuno ... > > In Mizuno's paper, he describes the deposition the preparation of the Ni > and the Pd with a good deal of text, but in the final part of the > preparation (page 8, figure 10) he describes heating the ceramic heater > wrapped in Pd wire to 700-800°C for 10-20 hours to deposit Pd on the Ni > surface. This may be the most important part of the process, yet he only > spent 1 small paragraph describing the deposition. > > The melting point of Pd is 1550°C and the boiling point of Pd is 2960°C. > Clearly, at the specified temperature of the ceramic heater, the vapor > pressure of the Pd is very, very low. So, without plasma, it is hard to > understand how any Pd is deposited at all. Mizuno only describes D2 as > being in the chamber - there is no Ar that is normally used in sputtering > (energetic Ar ions are used in sputtering to have a better probability of > knocking off atoms of the metal due to the high mass of Ar). Mizuno > doesn't describe a DC plasma condition that would have been used for > striking a glow near the ceramic heater with Pd wire for deposition. > > *Can you ask Mizuno if he can provide an explanation of the mechanism of > Pd deposition used in conjunction with the ceramic heater wound with the Pd > wire? Was it an evaporation process, sputtering, or ion plating > technique? Was a plasma active during the Pd deposition? Was it a > deuterium plasma? Was there a DC voltage applied between the heated Pd > wire and the cathode?* > > Also, Mizuno shows SEM photos of the Ni mesh cathode surface before and > after the treatment. The after photo shows micron scale bulbous growth > that I surmise from his deposition method cannot be all Pd. It appears > that the surface morphology of the Ni has been vastly altered, and probably > has only a small film thickness of Pd on top of that. His Ni mesh cathode > has a lot of area, and he only has a small amount of Pd wire on the ceramic > heater. > > *Can you ask Mizuno what he believes is the thickness of Pd that he has > deposited by his final deposition process? I.E. in Figure 32, how thick is > the Pd film on top of the Ni? * > > > > Regards - Bob Higgins >
