On Jul 19, 2007, at 11:47 AM, Jones Beene wrote:
> The higher mass would make diffusion of the O18 slower than O16,
so it would
take longer to diffuse to and accumulate near the anode. Whoops,
the oxygen doesn't move in such batteries? It's stuck in the
polyethylene oxide?
Not really. Anytime there is mass exchange at the molecular level
like this, the isotopes interchange as if there was magically no
chemical bond at all!
This is demonstrated in any number of reactions where isotopes can
be traced. There is a term for it, which I cannot recall at the
moment. If time permits, I will supply some references later today.
You are maybe thinking of the term "exchange reaction", e.g.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen-deuterium_exchange
I would expect such a reaction to be due to mutual tunneling, because
in such a mutual exchange not much happens to the overall molecular
energy, thus it is feasible. One problem with this hydrogen nucleus
tunneling notion in my head is that the nuclei have to be in fairly
close proximity to tunnel. The main proton conduction means in water
electrolytes if tunneling to/from H2O+ hydronium ions. To perpetuate
the chain of tunneling in the electrolyte to make conduction, the
hydronium ion has to rotate 180 degrees in each transfer in order to
make the tunneling distance feasible. If two nuclei can exchange then
it seems a bit strange they can't also fuse - except that one nucleus
tunneling to the other's location is *not* a favorable reaction due
to the charge void left behind, and the charge excess momentarily
created at the joint nucleus location. Interesting! The key to cold
fusion is clearly making the tunneling of D or D and T to a mutual
fusion site energetically neutral, or even favorable. I guess we
knew that though. That's why electron catalysis works so well. The
key is achieving the high deuterium density, the high fugacity, and
then providing energetically feasible tunneling possibilities. A high
mass negative particle provides just such a condition, but those are
both fleeting in existence and energetically costly. Maybe another
condition works as well, one involving a three way tunneling of two
positive charges and one negative, if some way is found to make that
likely. One way I can think of to attempt that is to raise a D2
loaded electrode to a very high negative voltage, possibly a few
million volts. The fusion reactions would not be due to kinetics,
but rather due to catalysis by the excess highly "pressurized"
electrons at the surface.
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
