Dear all, In my understanding, even though I haven't seen it expressed this way elsewhere, dielectric breakdown is what happens to the so-called Helmholtz double layer capacitor's insulator (the water monolayer separating the cathode's surface electron layer from the first layer of electrolyte dissolved positive charged deuterons attracted to the cathode) when deuterons reach the palladium surface in PF experiments, whether to get adsorbed, absorbed, or simply discharged and then evolved.
That water monolayer is an excellent insulator BTW: it requires a voltage of ~1V between the electrolyte and the cathode to break down, which considering its extremely low thickness (~1 angstrom), corresponds to a huge breakdown field of ~10 million V/mm, to be compared e.g. with that of air, which is "only" ~3 thousand V/mm. I haven't read the paper, but I have long believed, and expressed here on Vortex and also on CMNS, that a good QM understanding of the interactions of charged particles on surfaces is the key to understanding LENRs, and that the phenomenon known as "image charge", a collective effect of the surface-crawling excess electrons which makes an incident D+ perceive an attractive negative mirror image of itself on the other side of the cathode, is a key part of the process. Some here may remember my own hypothesis for the process (DIESECF, Desorbing vs Incident Excess Surface Electrons Catalyzed Fusion), expressed here a few years ago, which was the first suggestion ever AFAIK that head-on positive deuteron flows meeting at the negatively charged cathode surface had to be what interacted nuclearly in PF experiments. It still seems pretty obvious to me that this must be the case, as two low energy (a few eVs at most) deuterons on the same side of the cathode surface, _whether inside or outside_, have only an infinitesimal chance to meet due to their almost unimpeded mutual repulsion as is well known. Irrespective of my hypothesis being correct or not, let's indeed all focus on the surface, as discussed recently there is no proof whatsoever that LENRs occur elsewhere in a PF cold fusion cell. Let's be superficial ! ;-) Michel 2010/7/4 <[email protected]>: > Dear Professor, > > Having just read your paper, I am left wondering what the likelihood is of > dielectric breakdown where the density of charged particles attains a maximum? > > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html > >
