In reply to Jones Beene's message of Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:47:53 -0700: Hi, The cross section of the D-D reaction is much higher than for p-D or p-Ni, so it seems reasonable that more D-D reactions are likely to occur, and would be responsible for the majority of the excess heat. If the energy is dumped in the form of a fast electron, then there is nothing to prevent D-D from going straight to He4 (which it prefers to do because the binding forces in the He4 nucleus are much stronger than in the He3 or T nuclei). Note also that Pd is element 46 whereas Ni is only 28. The much higher charge on the Pd nucleus means that compared to Ni, a proton has "no chance" of penetrating the Coulomb field of Pd, which may well explain why H never works with Pd. It may occasionally work with Ni, due to the lower charge. Note that the H-H reaction is weak force mediated, and hence very unlikely, by many orders of magnitude. (Not impossible, just very slow), whereas the p-Ni reaction is strong force mediated (various possibilities). IOW one might expect D-D to be "easy", p-D more difficult, p-Ni even more difficult, and p-Pd almost impossible. In short while D can easily fuse with itself (strong force mediated), H can only fuse with itself extremely slowly (weak force mediated), leaving H few options other than to react preferentially with any D that might be present, or in the absence thereof with the metal nucleus. BTW the implication here is that the lower a metal is in the periodic chart, the better it should perform with H (other necessary criteria being met).
>-----Original Message----- >From: Jed Rothwell > >> I think the role of deuterium is unclear. But the fact that hydrogen does >not poison the reaction has to mean something. Right? Don't ask me what! >Ask 3 >theoreticians and you will get 5 answers. > > >Well - one of the reasons is fairly obvious from the fact that Patterson was >using what we now call a "codeposition" plating process - where only D2 was >absorbed initially. > >If loading was complete at the end of the plating stage, and only D2 was >absorbed, then this would tend to keep any later poisoning minimal, but >progressive - even when light water was used during the electrolysis. > >This goes along with Craven's observation of progressive degradation of the >excess heating effect, over time. > >Jones > Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
