At 12:31 AM 4/8/2012, [email protected] wrote:
In reply to Abd ul-Rahman Lomax's message of Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:34:24 -0500:
Hi,
[snip]
>Widom-Larsen theory completely fails to explain the actual
>experimental results of cold fusion experiments, particularly the PdD
>reactions of the Pons-Fleischmann Heat Effect.
Not that I'm a fan of WL :), but:
D + e- => 2 n
Pd106 + 2 n => Ru104 + He4 + 11.9 MeV
What "experimental result" does this explain?
Pd106 + 2 n would become Pd108, which is stable.
Granted 11.9 MeV isn't 23.8 MeV, but it is about half, and I'm not convinced
that the He4/heat ratio has been measured all that accurately.
The problem, Robin: the difficulty in measuring helium release is in
capturing all the helium. The released energy is reasonably well
measured through the calorimetry. It is suspected that, in general,
about half the helium is trapped in the cathode. If the reaction is a
surface reaction, and if helium is born with some energy (it could be
below the 20 KeV Hagelstein limit), half the helium will have a
trajectory inward to the cathode. The rest will come off with the
evolving gas, and be measured. So the heat/helium numbers from
experiment, unless adjusted according to some assumption like this,
tend to be higher than the actual reaction Q, double or so.
Not lower.
I personally find it frustrating that more work on measuring Q, and
improving accuracy, with more complete capture of the helium, hasn't
been done. I've been suggesting that experiments be run with a
platinum wire cathode, on which would be plated palladium. (This is
done in some SPAWAR "co-deposition" experiments." I'm putting
codeposition in quotes because these are apparently not actually
codeposition, because they first plate out the palladium, then raise
the voltage to start evolving deuterium. The experiments I know of
with a platinum wire cathode were not designed to measure heat or
helium, though.)
In any case, once the experiment is done and XP measured, then the
electrolysis would be reversed and the palladium dissolved, which
should release all the helium. It needs to be a platinum base wire
for the cathode or it would break up. Just my idea.
Storms, however, estimates 25 +/- 5 MeV/He-4, and it's reasonable
from the data. 12 MeV would not be.
Furthermore,
Pd104 + 2 n => Ru102 + He4 + 13.75 MeV and
Pd102 + 2 n => Ru100 + He4 + 15 MeV
If I'm correct, there is no evidence that dineutrons are even formed,
but without the dineutrons, you would have two reactions necessary,
and a serious rate problem. There is no evidence that dineutrons
would be absorbed in toto, the dineutron is a transient phenomenon.
W-L theory would predict a complex of transmutations, but none of
them release as much energy as the transmutation of deuterium ->
helium. These transmutations would show a predictable relationship to
the elemental mix in the close environment of the cathode surface.
Palladium would, of course, be a common activation target, and if the
targets decay by alpha emission, then we'd have hot alphas.
I have seen no experimental evidence that such a mix of transmuations
is actually found. Transmutations are certainly reported from FPHE
experiments, but at very low levels compared with helium. The
reactions described would all produce anomalous isotopes of Ruthenium.
Hot alphas, i.e., energetic helium nuclei, above 20 KeV, break the
Hagelstein limit, they would be observed. Charged particle radiation
from FPHE experiments are at quite low levels, not the high levels
that would be necessary if the helium is being produced by alpha emission.
Pd-104 is stable, so why would Pd102 + 2 n not simply become Pd-104?
