On Feb 27, 2011, at 12:32 PM, [email protected] wrote:
In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:28:04
-0900:
Hi,
[snip]
Ni has roughly the following isotopes/percentages:-
Ni-58 68%
Ni-60 26%
Ni-61 1%
Ni-62 4%
Ni-64 1%
If 30% of the Ni is converted to copper over the long term, then
it's possible
that it's just the heavier isotopes that are reacting and that
Ni-58 is not
involved.
It does not look to me to be credible that this happens, unless maybe
very large hydrogen clusters are involved - and that is not credible
for a mechanism that is so effective it can consume 94% of the
available consumable isotopes and convert all that to copper.
The main problem lies with 60Ni28. Looking at every strong force
reaction energetically feasible involving 4 or fewer protons:
60Ni28 + 2 p* --> 32S16 + 30Si14 + 00.554 MeV [-16.327 MeV] (B_Ni:2)
60Ni28 + 2 p* --> 34S16 + 28Si14 + 1.530 MeV [-15.351 MeV] (B_Ni:3)
60Ni28 + 2 p* --> 50Cr24 + 12C6 + 00.365 MeV [-16.516 MeV] (B_Ni:4)
60Ni28 + 2 p* --> 58Ni28 + 4He2 + 7.909 MeV [-8.973 MeV] (B_Ni:5)
60Ni28 + 3 p* --> 32S16 + 31P15 + 7.851 MeV [-18.205 MeV] (B_Ni:6)
60Ni28 + 3 p* --> 35Cl17 + 28Si14 + 7.901 MeV [-18.155 MeV] (B_Ni:7)
60Ni28 + 3 p* --> 36Ar18 + 27Al13 + 4.823 MeV [-21.233 MeV] (B_Ni:8)
60Ni28 + 3 p* --> 39K19 + 24Mg12 + 5.135 MeV [-20.921 MeV] (B_Ni:9)
60Ni28 + 3 p* --> 40Ca20 + 23Na11 + 1.771 MeV [-24.285 MeV] (B_Ni:10)
60Ni28 + 4 p* --> 32S16 + 32S16 + 16.715 MeV [-18.997 MeV] (B_Ni:11)
60Ni28 + 4 p* --> 36Ar18 + 28Si14 + 16.408 MeV [-19.304 MeV] (B_Ni:
12)
60Ni28 + 4 p* --> 40Ca20 + 24Mg12 + 13.464 MeV [-22.248 MeV] (B_Ni:
13)
You seem to have not included the reactions involving 1 proton.
Consider that if your own model is correct, then the likely result
of 1 proton
fusion is first a fast strong force mediated fusion, followed by a
"slow" weak
force mediated capture of the trapped electron. However the "slow"
weak force
reaction is still likely to be have a much shorter half life than
the usual
positron decay reaction because it has a 1 MeV advantage (2
electron masses) and
the electron is already trapped, so the nucleus doesn't need to
wait for the
occasional appearance of a K shell electron (which IMO is what
usually make EC
less likely than positron decay).
The normal half life of 61Cu29 is 3.3 hours (the energy of the
decay is 2.2
MeV), so if this is enhanced (the decay energy increases by at
least 50%), then
we could be looking at mere seconds, or perhaps even much less than
that if the
nucleus is still in an excited state due to the proton fusion.
(There is a rough
correlation between decay energy and half life.)
It's very possible that a similar logic applies to any of the
shrunken species
under consideration.
BTW another possibility with clusters is direct conversion to Zn
(or even
higher) with no Cu intermediary.
there appears to be no energetically feasible reaction that can
produce copper from 60Ni without creating radioactive nuclei.
True, but the half-life could be very short. However that still
leaves the
"problem" of gamma radiation, unless the new nucleus is either
formed in the
ground state or has a faster energy disposal mechanism available
than gamma
radiation.
Actually, according to deflation fusion theory, there is an initial
energy deficit of around 4.84 MeV that would suppress the initial gamma:
60Ni28 + p* --> 61Cu29 * + 4.801 MeV [-4.840 MeV]
So, I don't see that as a problem. The problem to me is the lack of
any evidence that heavy element LENR ever results in radioactive
nuclei. Maybe this would be a first.
The 61Cu29 decays to 61Ni29 in 3.333h, but the 4.84 MeV trapped
electron may stimulate that immediately. Now we are back to copper
with:
61Ni28 + p* --> 62Cu29 * + 5.866 MeV [-3.722 MeV]
The close proximity of many other "free" particles (as in a cluster),
could provide a means of rapidly disposing of the energy as kinetic
energy of
the particles rather than as gamma radiation, or could also mean
that the newly
forming nucleus can go directly to the ground state by ejecting fast
particle(s). The latter may technically also be considered a form of
fusion/fission, though not one commonly considered, particularly as
some of
those fast particles may be electrons.
However we don't know for sure that no gamma radiation was produced
during the
run that resulted in 30% Cu. This is especially so, considering
that Rossi
includes a Pb shield, so he certainly expects it, which in turn
seems to imply
that he has previously detected it (not to mention that has said
that it is
present in some places).
Same
is true considering weak reactions, which take an extra 782.353 kEv
away. If radioactive nuclei are created then some will remain in the
leftover material, but it was denied that there was any such
radioactive "ash".
See above re. half-life. Consider the situation where the heavier
Ni isotopes
are the first to transmute. Ni-64 goes directly to Cu-65 and stays
there. Ni-62
goes directly to Cu-63 and stays there. Ni-61 goes (perhaps much
more slowly) to
Cu-62 which rapidly decays to Ni-62, which then has a better chance
of proton
fusion, so it converts to Cu-63. Slower even still to capture a
proton is Ni-60,
which converts to Cu-61 (decays to Ni-61; and follows on from
there). Slowest of
all to capture a proton is Ni-58, which barely manages it,
resulting overall in
roughly a 30% conversion to stable Cu.
58Ni creates 59Cu:
58Ni28 + p* --> 59Cu29 * + 3.419 MeV [-6.329 MeV]
59Cu positron decays in 81.5 s (normally) to 59Ni which has a 76,000
yr half-life.
I believe there was a statement by Rossi that there was no residual
radiation, so this should rule out 59Ni in the leftovers.
However, it may be a reasonable hypothesis that the initially trapped
electron (by 6.329 MeV deficit) stimulates the nucleus to the point
where 59Co is created quickly from the 59Cu. Now we can have:
59Co27 + p* --> 60Ni28 + 9.533 MeV [1.588 MeV]
but we have now moved up the ladder sufficiently to convert
everything to copper. This reaction might produce 1.588 MeV gammas by
the way. Non-radiating alternatives might be:
59Co27 + 2 p* --> 60Ni28 + 1H1 + 9.533 MeV [-6.856 MeV]
59Co27 + 3 p* --> 58Ni28 + 4He2 + 17.441 MeV [-7.881 MeV]
The key question I think is whether the initially trapped electron
has the kinetic energy to stimulate a very short half-life of a
radioactive composite nucleus. Clearly it does! The trapped electron
*initially* has the kinetic energy it had when it was in the very
small deflated hydrogen state, a very high kinetic energy, low
potential energy. This explains why radioactive products are not
observed from heavy element LENR, at least not from the simple single
decay elements that have been experimentally involved. This may not
be true of very heavy elements like those in the actinide decay
chain, for example. This could be a very interesting line of
research concerning nuclear remediation.
This sort of scenario is not unreasonable because the most stable
nuclei are
those that are close to the middle of the isotope range for any
given element,
hence neutron heavy isotopes are more likely to "want" a proton
than neutron
light (or "proton rich") isotopes.
[snip]
Regards,
Robin van Spaandonk
http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
