Fran,
This could be an important paper for expanding the concept into an alternative method of chemical thermal cycling - for either heating or cooling purposes. There could be anomalous gain derived from Casimir heating in this kind of situation, but that is not claimed. And it is only "implied" if you should chose to look for it. However, the paper can explain "why" some other thermal anomalies have appeared, especially cooling, in the context of a hydrogen absorbing nanopowder. What came to mind specifically was the TEC experiments, and claims of A. Rossi, several years ago, which apparently then led to the LENR results as the next step. He apparently found a strong cooling effect in nano-nickel first. Following which, there could have been serendipity, leading to the heating results (if they are true). The theoretical connection of "thermoelectric cooling" to "thermal gain" - using the same or similar nanopowder, has not been evident before. The Kidwell paper offers a possible explanation that may point the way to how this could happen, but the exact details are still nebulous for me. Fran sees it as an example of a bistable chemical reaction that flips states based on the balance between "covalent bonding on one side and van der Waals force on the other" . but perhaps the wording of this should be changed to "hydrogen bonding on the other" - in that the hydrogen bond (up to 30 kJ/mole) is stronger than a van der Waals interaction and could be in the range of weak covalency. The covalent bond, especially in nickel or palladium would be weak to begin with, so a sequential shuttling, back and forth between those two, could exploit any asymmetry based on such things as geometric (Casimir) time distortion. Furthermore, in contrast to electrostatic or ionic bonds, the strength of covalency depends on the angular relation between the atoms, which is affected by confinement. This shuttling approach could be related to a kind of asymmetrical phase change involving a dissolved, but not chemically-bound gas - which is known as the "iceberg effect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clausius%E2%80%93Mossotti_relation It should also be noted that the A-Z formula is ferromagnetic. Yet being magnetic, it must have a Curie temperature, and probably a low one, but that is unknown (to me). The Curie temp of Nickel (Ni) is 358 C. and the 'trigger temperature' for the A-Z effect is in the range of 400 C. Therefore the two might be related . or not. Coincidences do happen. Jones Speaking of coincidences, one was in the literary News last week - on the anniversary of "To Kill a Mockingbird". How unlikely is it that two of the best-known and respected writers in America would have been best friends growing up in a tiny rural Alabama town, and been totally eccentric to boot ? From: Roarty, Francis X I found a multi author 2006 ppt including Grabowski on this same subject: Anomalous Heat in Deuterium-Palladium Reactions David A. Kidwell, Allison E. Rogers, Kenneth Grabowski, and David Knies .... Chemical effect due to Hydrogen-Deuterium exchange may account for some of the ... lenr-canr.org/powerpoint/KidwellDdoesgasloa.ppt As Mixtent pointed out the Grabowski paper is only for anomalous heat when a mixture of hydrogen and deuterium are present. It doesn't apply to experiments using pure hydrogen or even pure deuterium. It does however represent one example of a bistable chemical reaction that flips states based on the balance between "covalent bonding on one side and Van der Walls force on the other". Since the H-D exchange method swaps h2 for d1 it is obviously a surface effect outside a cellular lattice which can only hold h1 or d1 per cell (correct me if there is an exception). I suspect Van der Walls forces are concentrated and have steep gradients at the surface to produce the 4:1 loading/ film effect proposed in the Lawandy paper. IMHO this would also produce a preferential environment for monatomic gas on the lattice surface of the catalyst (like open foam cell insulation). D1 can migrate into the open cells - possibly even become fractional while covalent bonds are opposed to fractional translation.
