One of the things I noted about the new hotCat is that it seemed to not be affected by the air that would have been present after the powder was loaded. There was no means to pull a vacuum to clean out the air. In thinking about the use and effects of the LiAlH4, it occurred to me that this compound could also supply a gettering action for the oxygen and nitrogen present in the closed reactor.
At first when LiALH4 decomposes, the hydrogen will evolve into the air, and at that temperature, and in the presence of these metals, the oxygen in the air would form water vapor with the hydrogen (burning to release some heat). But as the aluminum melted, it would begin to oxidize in the presence of the water vapor. The oxidation of aluminum is extremely stable (and exothermic), and creates Al2O3 (alumina) that will bind to the material on the side walls of the reactor. Because the oxygen bond with aluminum is so stable (and oxygen is not released to a temperature of over 2000C), the aluminum will getter out all of the oxygen from the system. Further at the higher temperatures (>900C), the aluminum may also bind with the nitrogen creating a very stable aluminum nitride, hence gettering the nitrogen as well. This will then leave the interior gas to be hydrogen, argon, and lithium vapor (at some temperature). If there is Ni present on the interior, the lithium vapor may alloy from gas phase with the Ni as a surface alloy. Lithium nickel surface alloy may have a higher hydrogen uptake than the Ni by itself. Once the Li is a thin alloy film on the Ni particle surfaces which are catalyzed to produce a LENR reaction, the Li may then be a participant in the LENR in condensed matter form as opposed to being a participant in vapor phase form. Bob Higgins
