Dear Horace, when I read in your draft http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/DeflationFusion.pdf "a cathode can be loaded electrolytically from one side, the electrolyte side, and yet be a charged to millions of volts at the back side surface", suspicions of heresy can't help rising again, you mean "charged to a high surface charge density" don't you? The cathode is "at ground potential", you say so yourself in the draft, any high voltage is across an insulator on the ++ anode, right? Here is your drawing again for convenience:
> GGGGGGGGGGGG > G G > G G > G G > G G > | + X|G G++ > |..+..........X|G G++ > | + X|G G++ > | + X|G G++ > | + X|G G++ > ---------------|G G > |G G > |G G > |G G > |G G > |GGGGGGGGGGGG > | > Laser > > Key: > -| - Thin glass > G - Surface of thick insulator > + - Low voltage electrolysis anode > X - Thin film CF cathode at ground potential > ++ - High voltage anode > .. - Electrolyte level I assure you that what matters for high charge density on the back side of your cathode is not the absolute voltage. The charge density can be easily derived from basic capacitor design equations see e.g. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/pplate.html q=C*V, and C=epsilon*A/d => q/A = epsilon*V/d = k*epsilon0*V/d where epsilon0 is permittivity of vacuum, k is the dielectric constant of the material, V is capacitor voltage and d is dielectric thickness. So a high dielectric constant k helps, and so does a high average field V/d (which requires a high dielectric strength --usually expressed in kV/mm), but absolute voltage is irrelevant, although it will be typically high e.g. if you use a 50kV/mm dielectric strength material of thickness 1mm then you will have to apply 50kV to get the highest possible charge density. BTW I have a better idea than my previous suggestions for the ++ anode material, use an NaCl solution, it's an excellent conductor, it's transparent, and it's easy to make an electrical connection to (just dip the HV wire into it!), all you need is walls to contain it. Hope this helps, Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Horace Heffner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 4:39 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]:Re: Electron fugacity, deuteron fugacity, and applied fields On Jul 31, 2007, at 11:44 PM, Michel Jullian wrote: > No heresy then :) Yes indeed your parallel plate capacitor > arrangement on the back side (right hand side) of the cathode is > capable of increasing electron density there, good idea! > > A few comments: > > 1/ Any point in using two dielectric materials, why not just > metallize the right hand side of the thin glass to make the HV anode? The thought was to start out with an approximation to something that consistently works - something along the lines of Fig. 1 in: http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSevidenceof.pdf It would certainly be of much interest to place a pre-prepared co- depsited cathode material in gas phase, in which case the surface would be directly exposed to HV in hydrogen, with loading hopefully sustained by the applied field. > > 2/ Assuming you agree with 1/, the charge density on the RHS of the > cathode only depends on the ratio of the HV to the thickness of the > dielectric and on the dielectric constant, the absolute value of > the HV doesn't matter right? I've been turning this over in my head for days. I don't know. I don't understand the results of Szpak cell with a mere 6000 V. This is something that needs to be investigated I think. > > 3/ Why not make the HV anode in the shape of a grid, or a uniform > metallization with a small hole, so you could shine the laser at > 90° to the cathode? A grid may work but will only maximize loading if fully immersed in electrolyte and this creates some of the interpretation problems already associated with the Szpak cell arrangement. It might work if the grid were in hydrogen gas. A HF AC superimposed over the DC might provide extra ionization if needed to keep the loading up. The back side cell seems to be a solution to this problem, though a HV side gas phase loaded cell (loaded from the HV side) would be much better I think if loading can be maintained. An approach to the gas side loading might be to co-deposit a D-Pd layer on on a copper grid or just copper wires and then use the Claytor gas loading method. Another alternative is a gas-gas type cell, where hydrogen is supplied from the front side in gas phase, through a thin Pd layer - but there is no evidence to suggest such a cell would work, the H fugacity would be low - it would be a shot in the dark. I've considered the idea of shining a laser down a hole in the cathode, or an outside loaded cathode tube, that just fits the beam. In that case there is probably not much sense in keeping the electrode highly charged. The effect would rely entirely on the short term AC fields of the laser. I like the idea of starting with a known, the Szpak cell arrangement, and seeing if very high DC fields in modestly different arrangements than the Szpak cell have any effect. Another arrangement might be a triode arrangement, where current can be run through the cathode from end to end independently from the loading or field potentials. This current can be AC. Its purpose is to cause lateral diffusion, and thus increase the tunneling rates and stresses in the cathode. This was tried I think, without success, back when few cells worked. It still might be interesting to try on a reliable co-deposited cell. One thing very bad about the back side cell arrangement where the HV back side business end is deposited on an insulator is the cathode will undoubtedly destroy itself by de-adhering. I figure it should be good enough to see differing SEM results, microscopically visible melting changes, etc. I don't know what material would be good to limit diffusion rates and yet keep loading up. It would probably be an alloy. I would be nice to find a high loading low diffusion rate material that could be made thick, and which could ablate away surface destroyed by fusion reactions. An alternative may be a gas phase equivalent to a fluidized bed. Horace Heffner http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
