I think Ed meant to send this response to Vortex, but it came to me because of the peculiar on-line reader I use. Anyway, let me respond here:
Edmund Storms wrote: >Jed, let me describe what happens when a material that is reactive with >H2 or D2 is exposed to the gas. This description is not hypothetical but >is based on personal observation. > >As the gas is added, the sample starts to get warmer, which causes the >reaction to increase in rate. The temperature eventually increases until >the ambient pressure and the temperature are more or less in >equilibrium. . . . >As for the behavior when H2 was used, this gas should have produced an >initial temperature almost identical to that produced by D2. This is exactly what Arata observed, and what he reported. That is what is shown in Figs. 2 and 4 that I just uploaded. The chemical reaction during the gas loading phase produces the same amount of heat with deuterium and hydrogen, using samples of ZrO2 of the same mass (7 g). > The fact >that it did not is very strange and suggests the data were not taken >under the same conditions. This is Ed's misunderstanding, caused by the fact that I sent Fig. 5B first. Fig. 5B shows what happens AFTER gas loading, when the effects with deuterium and hydrogen begin to diverge. During the initial phase the two react almost exactly the same way. Question for Ed: is Arata's measurement of 4.4 kJ of chemical heat from an 18 g sample plausible? Too much? Too little? >In contrast, if the sample reacts easily with the gas, as is the case >with the Pd-Ni-Zr alloy, a lot of heat is generated quickly and the >reaction is quickly completed. This is also exactly what Arata observed and reported. >As a result, the temperature increases >rapidly and also decays away rapidly, as was observed. Arata noted this. >The only >observation that makes the reported behavior unique is the generation of >helium, which is not shown on the graph. Helium is not shown in this graph, as noted. However, it was not detected with hydrogen and it was with deuterium. Furthermore, there are two pronounced differences in the reported behavior: the heat with deuterium lasts ~3000 minutes longer than with helium (and would probably last much longer), and the delta T temperature difference between the cell core and wall continues with deuterium, whereas it disappears with hydrogen. These are very significant and in my opinion, they mean there is heat production with deuterium after gas injection, but no heat production with hydrogen. - Jed
