----- Original Message -----
From: Jones Beene
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 7:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Banking on BLP?
Mike
MC: Helium is *not* a catalyst, it happens to be a chemically inactive good
heat
transfer medium. He+ is a catalyst, ionized by electric fields in some
experiments. The DSC is a sophisticated Calvet calorimeter system which does
not ionize He.
'Chemically inactive' is FAR from a resistance to ionization. It is naive to
think that He can remain non-ionized in the presence of a strongly ionic
solute like NaH. The NaH provides the electric field.
For instance, water is not strongly ionic but becomes easily ionized in
proximity any weak acid of base. There is no reason to suggest that Helium,
while it would be more resistant to transient ionization than water - can
remain locally non-ionized when NaH is in proximity, which would have
near-fields in excess of the 54.4 eV on a transient timescale.
There is no doubt in my mind that He is an active catalyst in the situation
mentioned, and I am pretty sure that Mills would not object to that
characterization.
MC: Jones, you have a point. There are two contexts. The one I was referring
to is the DSC scan of Fig 7, in which NaH is first solid and then undergoes
an endothermic transition, possibly to a vapor phase. At a higher
tempoerature it becomes strongy exothermic. He is present as a heat transfer
medium. In the exothermic reaction, He may become ionized and catalyze some
of the H in NaH, but if the NaH is itself reacting, the catalyst is more
prbably the Na.
MC: Much to puzzle over.
Mike Carrell
Jones
________________________________________________________________________
This Email has been scanned for all viruses by Medford Leas I.T. Department.
