Air poisoning of the reaction has been an iron clad rule in Ni/H technology from its beginning. Now Rossi has overcome this poisoning no no.
One way that this might happen is that the reaction no longer occurs in the gas phase where the nitrogen in the air and hydrogen can mix. The hydrogen might become chemically bound to any number of elements like lithium and/or carbon after it is released from the lithium aluminum hydride storage medium leaving the nitrogen floating above it all far from the reaction site. The reaction might be occurring in solid form with hydrogen bound to some other combination of elements. Lithium seems the most likely chemical mate for the hydrogen solid state storage system because of the high temperatures needed to release the hydrogen from the lithium. This implies that the reaction occurs in two parts. The nickel powder produces an EMF beam that reaches out from beyond the nickel particle and affects the hydride at some considerable distance from the nickel particle. When the hydrogen is in gaseous form, the nitrogen poisons it. However when the hydrogen becomes chemically bound in a hydride, it can participate in the reaction. This is a great burnout control technique because temperature rises will reduce the intensity of the hydrogen reaction in the solid state. This gas poisoning in the gaseous state puts a ceiling on how high the temperature of the reactor can go.
