Since I haven't read all the papers on LENR-CANR, I'm not sure if this subject
has already been covered. The recent Arata demonstration confirms what I've
thought for some time concerning the CF phenomenon. That is, the electrolytic
version of CF has been difficult to reproduce because electrolysis is not the
actual mechanism at work in producing fusion and heat. Maybe it is merely
another but more difficult way of creating the same conditions that Arata
presents.
The well-known period of cathode loading in the CF electrolysis cells has been
shown to require the formation of micro-fissures in the palladium before excess
heat is produced. This makes a lot of sense because those who are familiar with
the history of catalysis know that platinum and palladium are considered to be
"poisoned" catalysts if they have been in contact with water. In other words,
no hydrogen adsorption would take place if the catalyst had been poisoned with
water, among other substances.
So how could the deuterium adsorption take place in a palladium cathode under
water? Short answer: It couldn't.
The formation of the micro-fissures in the palladium surface would clearly be
dependent on the stresses in the crystal structure of the metal, or perhaps its
thickness, explaining the difficulty of reproducibility. It's possible that
once these small cracks are formed, no water comes into contact with the walls
of the fissures. This might happen for either of two reasons. Either the cracks
are so small as to present a surface tension barrier and no electrolyte would
penetrate them, or the continuous formation of deuterium gas directly above
them prevents the electrolyte from entering them.
So what we have inside the cracks is pure, freshly exposed, unpoisoned
palladium, suitable for catalysis and, in this case, deuterium adsorption. What
about the gas pressure? In Arata's demonstration, up to 100 atm of deuterium is
introduced into the cell. How could we possibly get so much pressure into our
micro-fissures?
Actually, there's probably much more pressure than that at the surface of the
palladium, at least for a short time each time a deuterium bubble is formed.
Anyone who's done water electrolysis knows that you get hydrogen bubbles at the
cathode. The gas in a bubble you can see with the naked eye is probably at not
much more than atmospheric pressure. But at the micron level, it requires an
enormous gas pressure to form a bubble in water. A rule of thumb is that you
need about 100,000 atm to overcome the van der Waals forces trying to collapse
a 1 micron bubble. This explains why you never see little bubbles under a
microscope when observing protozoa, for example.
So at some point during the formation of a deuterium bubble during electrolysis
of heavy water, the gas pressure is very high. Inside the cracks of the
palladium cathode, just below the surface, the deuterium pressure would also be
very high, at least for a short time until the bubble grows larger. In effect,
you now have the same conditions as the Arata device, dry palladium exposed to
high pressure deuterium.
This latest announcement and public demonstration by Arata bodes well for cold
fusion research. I see that around the world, new interest has been aroused. It
will be kind of fun to watch what the Torquemada of the American Physical
Society, Robert Park, will do to demean and obfuscate Arata's rather
unequivocal results.
Maybe this time, hmmmm....?
M.
