In reply to Jones Beene's message of Mon, 7 Jun 2010 12:04:01 -0700: Hi, [snip] >OK - boron is one of many known oxygen getters, but there are others that are >far more effective in that role - and it would not be a good choice for the >job if there was not more to it than binding to oxygen. Boron notably has a >very high cross-section for thermal neutrons, but that is never mentioned as >being important. > > > >Taking this odd statement at face value would indicate that oxygen (presumably >the impurity) causes a negative effect, and that the boron is only there to >eliminate oxygen. Can this be interpreted another way? > > > >The glaring problem with that statement is that the Arata-Zhang alloy which >is presumably the most active host metal ever found to date by any researcher, >since it is active without an ongoing energy input at all (other than >pressurization and the initial thermal trigger), contains more oxygen than any >other element. This is due to the powder being baked in air at high >temperature for many hours. Notably the percentage of palladium is tiny >compared to oxygen. Nickel, zirconium and oxygen are there in substantial >atomic ratios compared to palladium. Rossi and many others use no palladium.
A getter binds with Oxygen as a gas, converting it into Oxygen ions bound in a solid. In the Arata-Zhang alloy, the Oxygen is already bound if I'm not mistaken. IOW Miles is talking about removing an Oxidant from the experiment, which is not present in the case of Arata-Zhang. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
