I have been considering the behavior of hydrogen that is captured by a nickel matrix to obtain a better understanding of the system. It seems highly likely that an individual proton would not be freely floating around within an NAE type region. The electric field of this particle would ensure that any nearby electrons would be stolen and you would end up with an hydrogen atom. Do we have evidence that this is the case or is there evidence supporting the idea of a free proton lingering around in a large cavernous NAE?
Then, when I think of hydrogen gas contained within a nickel cage, I immediately visualize interesting behavior. Of course we all would agree that a very large container composed of nickel would hold a large number of atoms of hydrogen at the ambient temperature of the nickel metal. A lot of the gas would proceed to leak out through the poor container material, but there would be a factor that could be described to define the leakage rate to be expected under various conditions. The large number of captured hydrogen molecules or atoms would settle at the same temperature as the surrounding metal to exist in thermal equilibrium. If someone were to place a pressure probe within the cavity he would measure the pressure associated with the quantity of hydrogen. Now, what happens as we shrink the volume of the cavity? If we decide to keep the pressure and temperature constant, we would have to remove gas in inverse proportion to the cavity volume change. At a given temperature and pressure the gas molecules are a certain average distance apart, which in the case of hydrogen would be significant at room temperatures. I am playing with the density calculations for hydrogen to help determine how many typically would occupy a small NAE that eventually approaches the size of a nickel atom. I realize that I will run out of hydrogen a long time before the NAE gets anywhere near nickel atom size if I am to keep the captive gas at room temperature and pressure. So, what are we to think of the hydrogen gas that is captured within a small NAE? Does it exist in some liquid form due to the enormous pressure that would be required in order to force it to coexist with its fellow atoms? You would have a difficult time compressing hydrogen at room temperature into such density. The temperature of the hydrogen would be mainly determined by that of the surrounding nickel atoms, so the pressure must adjust in some manner. Would this pressure paradox prevent more than one molecule of hydrogen from entering in a close relationship with its kind within small cavities? It would appear as though the extreme pressure would result in the rapid escape of additional molecules or atoms into adjacent empty holes. Perhaps this is why the loading must be so high for LENR to begin since once there are no holes nearby for pressure release the metal matrix must deal with the extreme pressure available. The main final questions are: how would we define the state of the hydrogen trapped within the region that is so small that only two or perhaps six exist? Is this by definition a gas at very high pressure and room temperature? When would it be considered a liquid? Are their BEC implications? Let's make an attempt to define the state of the hydrogen that we assume is reacting in the form as it exists and determine what laws of physics apply. Any good thoughts? Dave
