Remember Pons&Fleishmann deliberately poisoned their electrolyte with carbon
disulfide ( which unfortunately disables any platinum recombiner you may be
using if allowed to splash up there (from experience) ).
Hoyt Stearns
Scottsdale, Arizona US
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen A. Lawrence [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 2:11 PM
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion, Wet or Dry?
Michael Foster wrote:
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.
Um ... Perhaps I've misunderstood this but I didn't think *adsorption*
was all that relevant to CF.
In CF the hydrogen/deuterium actually enters the Pd lattice. In
adsorption, OTOH, it sticks to the surface. Quoting from Wikipedia,
*
*Adsorption* is a process that occurs when a gas or liquid solute
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solute> accumulates on the surface of a
solid or a liquid (adsorbent), forming a film of molecules or atoms
(the adsorbate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adsorbate>).
*
In catalysis, adsorption is very important, because the reactions
actually take place on the surface of the catalyst. But in CF they take
place within the mass of the Pd and whether anything is sticking to the
surface or not would seem somewhat irrelevant.
The nuclei which fuse in CF are actually inside the lattice, as I
understand it. The H and O which react when Pt (or Pd) catalyzes a
reaction, OTOH, are stuck to the surface. Water on the surface poisons
the latter but it's not clear it would have any effect on the former.
Boosting surface area of the catalyst by using fine particles makes an
enormous difference to catalysis, because there's that much more surface
area present; OTOH, though it speeds loading of D into the Pd, it's not
a ticket to instant success in CF because it's not the surface area, per
se, which matters.
