On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:07 Jed Rothwell wrote [snip] I think Rossi said there
are two mystery elements added to Ni, presumably in small amounts. Brian Ahern
and I suspect one of them is Pd. [/snip]
Pd nano powder does sound like a good candidate. Grain size may be important
to backfill the packing space between the grains of Ni powder. Pd should be
more sensitive to changes in pressure/motion than Ni and respond more quickly
to triggers. Although the disassociation of hydrogen requires energy the free
atoms recombine almost instantly and may initiate a cascade of like reactions
in the Ni nano geometry. My hypothetical "discount" to the disassociation
energy of H2 is provided by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in the form of
gas law random motion in opposition to change in Casimir geometry. The change
in energy density associated with Casimir effect forms the molecular
confinement, The chaotic motion of gas is the energy source and the covalent
bond is the rectifying device. We still have to manipulate the environment to
get the molecules near the trigger threshold BUT not too near - the level we
provide has to be lower than the energy released when the atoms recombine in
order to make a profit. The difference has to be supplied by organizing the
chaotic motion of gas to assist the disassociation. I think the PWM helps
organize the confined H2 that is close to the threshold point to start the
reaction cycle which then starts cascading outward. Even a very small gain
would quickly grow into a thermal runaway
without a cooling method to throttle it back.
Fran
