On Jul 19, 2007, at 11:47 AM, Jones Beene wrote:
> The higher mass would make diffusion of the O18 slower than O16,
so it would
take longer to diffuse to and accumulate near the anode. Whoops,
the oxygen doesn't move in such batteries? It's stuck in the
polyethylene oxide?
Not really. Anytime there is mass exchange at the molecular level
like this, the isotopes interchange as if there was magically no
chemical bond at all!
This is demonstrated in any number of reactions where isotopes can
be traced. There is a term for it, which I cannot recall at the
moment. If time permits, I will supply some references later today.
You are maybe thinking of the term "exchange reaction", e.g.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen-deuterium_exchange
I would expect such a reaction to be due to mutual tunneling, because
in such a mutual exchange not much happens to the overall molecular
energy, thus it is feasible. One problem with this hydrogen nucleus
"exchange" tunneling notion in my head is that the nuclei have to be
in fairly close proximity to tunnel. The main proton conduction
means in water electrolytes is tunneling to/from H2O+ hydronium
ions. To perpetuate the chain of tunneling in the electrolyte to
make conduction, the hydronium ion has to rotate 180 degrees in each
transfer in order to make the tunneling distance feasible. If two
nuclei can exchange places then it seems a bit strange they can't
also fuse - except that one nucleus tunneling to the other's location
is *not* a favorable reaction due to the charge void left behind, and
the charge excess momentarily created at the joint nucleus location.
Interesting! The key to cold fusion is clearly making the tunneling
of D or D and T to a mutual fusion site energetically neutral, or
even favorable. However, and this is amazing, it merely needs to be
as neutral or favorable as an ordinary exchange reaction. I guess we
kind of knew that though. That's why electron catalysis works so
well. The key is achieving the high deuterium density, the high
fugacity, and then providing energetically feasible tunneling
possibilities. A high mass negative particle provides just such a
condition, but those are both fleeting in existence and energetically
costly. Maybe another condition works as well, one involving a three
way tunneling of two positive charges and one negative, if some way
is found to make that likely. One way I can think of to attempt that
is to raise a D2 loaded electrode to a very high negative voltage,
possibly a few million volts. The fusion reactions would not be due
to kinetics, but rather due to catalysis by the excess highly
"pressurized" electrons at the surface. The surface of the loaded
electrode would then have simultaneously two kinds of fugacity -
electron and nuclear. The problem then might simply be feeding the
nuclei to the electrode surface slow enough so as to maintain vacuum
insulation of the electrode surface. This might be achieved using a
surface coating on the electrode to slow hydrogen diffusion. The HV
electrode can be loaded with D2 continually, possibly using
electrolysis, from the "back" side. He4, He3, and T removal might be
a problem to engineer through regarding the surface coating.
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
