Yeah, and remember I was trying to achieve Boron-Hydrogen fusion. At the beginning of the P&F announcement, Pons' and Flieshman suggested that the electrolysis over potential could induce pressures at the surface of the metal that are literally astronomical. I don't recall exactly, but it was huge! 10-23 PSI? Something like that. That was the track I followed theory wise to design this experiment. You know, at the atomic level, that scale of pressure is typical, so what if?
So question one; does that over potential exist on the cathode only, or does it exist on both? Cathode vs anode is one of the most confusing terminologies I've run into. Cathode should be negative, anode should be positive. However, the direction of flow for electrons is weird. At the time, no one knew if it was a surface effect or a deep metal effect. Based on the period of time for the P&F effect (quite questionable effect) to come on, the Pd+D sounded like it was a deep metal effect. But their discusion suggested over potentials at the surface. If it was surface, then a B11 + p fusion (pB11) might be possible. At the time surface vs volume effect was a huge debate. So being the curious and cheap college student I was, this is the end result. I did tried a lot of common metals and combinations, Al, stainless steel, zinc, all stunk, and borax corroded the alligator clips (eventually). Copper wire did OK, but would break down and color the electrolyte (co-deposition is possible there, but the Ni, never changed color from the copper deposits). Ni was awesome. I eventually settled on graphite from a pencil. although a hobby shop would have been better. Just carefully shave off the wood with a razor or exacto knife. I selected graphite for several reasons, but mainly I didn't wan't it participating in reaction. It should be inert for most of the chemistry that was happening. It also has some resistance so it acts kind of like a current limiter ( I had burned up a DC transformer with a copper electrode ). The effect is very robust (which is what CF needed from the beginning). It is fascinating and the physics behind it is not trivial! Best Regards, Chuck On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <a...@lomaxdesign.com>wrote: > At 08:29 PM 9/23/2012, Eric Walker wrote: > >> On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 6:00 PM, David Roberson <<mailto: >> dlrober...@aol.com>dl**rober...@aol.com <dlrober...@aol.com>> wrote: >> >> At the moment my hydrogen loading system is taking 1 amp at about 20 >> volts.  The voltage reading varies greatly depending upon the spacing >> between the electrodes as expected with a resistive electrolyte. >> >> >> >> I'm enjoying the crazy tabletop experiment a little more than I should. >> >> Let's see -- a nickel coin, pencil lead, borax ...  Maybe you can work >> out and document a simple protocol for others, and then do large run of the >> experiments, and, using statistical analysis, show that there's a >> significant difference in the integrated temperature series in the cell >> with the nickel versus the cell with the pencil lead.  Just for fun, you >> could use a simple mercury thermometer rather than something fancy; there >> would be no end to the amusement if LENR could be convincingly >> established using stuff that can be found in one's home. >> > > Sure. It's not very likely, though. Still, trying stuff is fun, and you > never can tell what you will find. > > Be careful. You are evolving hydrogen, which is, of course, flammable. I > don't think that nickel loads much hydrogen, but I do suggest treating it > as flammable. So if you heat it, be prepared for it to start to burn > furiously. That would definitely happen with palladium. > > > >
