Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
They're both interesting, in part because the excess gas evolution, which Mizuno mentions, _was_ observed by Scott Little. In particular, in the last run he describes on his website (at which Ken Shoulders was observing), he says he saw 3.5 times as much gas as predicted by Faraday's law. (Unlike Mizuno, Little made no attempt to determine what the excess gas was composed of, so it's just a (reasonable) guess that it was hydrogen and oxygen.)
If the temperature was high there is no mystery. It must be decomposed hydrogen and oxygen, from pyrolysis. If you do not account for this enthalpy the calorimetry will be waa-a-a-y wrong. You have to measure it, or cool it and recombine it within the cell, which I suppose would be difficult. (I believe it is proper to call this "enthalpy," along with steam -- which you also have to measure, by the way.)
Mizuno calls it "non-Faradaic" but that seems like an overly complicated and mysterious sounding way to describe it.
- Jed
