Posts by Ecco

@Paradigmnoia: I remember reading somewhere that he might have had an operating spectrometer in his bag, but I've never been able to find a proper source for this.

Quote from Walker

Krivit's motivation with regard to Rossi probably stems from Rossi throwing him out of his lab when Rossi Caught him trying to secretly place equipment in Rossi's Lab.

Do you have a more detailed source about this?

Some radioisotopes do decay that way however, see for example 55Cr:

Source: http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~…_Notes/B1/NAI_catalog.pdf
(along with other examples)

@jeff: if the process can be used for for obtaining porous (i.e. catalytic, skeletal) nickel powder, it is useful. Performing several oxidation-reduction cycles is routinely employed for obtaining catalytic surfaces or even "activating" fresh catalysts.

I wasn't aware that this could be efficiently performed by reducing NiO at much higher temperatures than normal (1500K).

Given that Nickel metal isn't supposed to retain much hydrogen at room temperature and pressure, it is quite possible that the so-called hydrogenation step is mostly needed for obtaining a porous surface/bulk geometry. If this is the case, then there certainly are better ways for doing this step than gently heating Ni powder at 200°C or so in air.

Notably the main differences from previous runs where he didn't notice gamma emission increases were that pressure was reduced to a lower level and that the Ni powder was also baked in air for 2 hours at mild temperatures.

The reactor was also enclosed in alumina bricks, but I think this was also the case in earlier runs.

@StephenC: It could be that I'm biased for noticing coincidences, but Defkalion GT's theory was that the hydrogen atoms excited in a Rydberg state (specifically, with short spark discharges) could in some circumstances and for a very short period of time appear as "disguised neutrons" and easily engage with nuclear reaction with the Ni. This was also Lino Daddi's (and others) theory on the JONP a few years ago, if you remember his exchanges with Rossi; he called them "virtual neutrons" which is the same concept. I believe Widom-Larsen's "ultra low momentum neutrons" also are a similar concept.

I think Rossi here is referring to something along these lines and not literally meaning that neutrons are actually produced in this intermediate step. This document therefore might be closer to his former interpretation of the reaction, even though it was filed in 2014.

But this is just my speculation, and I'm not really taking this provisional patent application too seriously.

@barty: is it important that it's Ni (and Li+LiAlH4)? They already have a proven solution in the form of K:Fe2O3 catalysts. If anything, it's amateur experimenters who should be using them, given that there are plenty of peer-reviewed papers by Holmlid et al. published in international journals reporting experimental results and observations. All the baking (calcining), reduction and hydrogenation steps suggested for the Ni+Li powder in Rossi/Parkhomov replications are probably needed for obtaining a porous structure with a partially oxidized surface similar to that of these catalysts.

Using a ready-made K:Fe2O3 catalyst would probably shortcut this process.

@sveinol: thanks for answering. As a side note, the magnification of K* production with the application of a small voltage reminded me of another effect in catalysis known as EPOC (Electrochemical Promotion of Catalysis), which also requires small voltages or currents in order to work. Perhaps, it might be related to some extent with the voltage dependence observed in the paper I previously linked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…ion_of_catalytic_activity
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10800-009-9938-7

It looks like he's trying to do something else than described, then.

On the other hand, there are reports of X-ray emission from laboratory-produced spark discharges in air, see for example:
A study of X-ray emission from laboratory sparks in air at atmospheric pressure

EDIT: regardless of what Rossi acually wrote in his provisional patent application, it's worth pointing out that Defkalion GT used to have a spark discharge system in their reactors, which in retrospect they might have copied from Rossi or at least, from one of his ideas. In their case, short spark discharges were claimed to be used for dissociating molecular hydrogen to its atomic form and excite the H atoms formed to their Rydberg state. See their 2013 presentation: https://drive.google.com/open?…eIOSe9g5EnSUxNUnBpdkFUWDg

Can it be done for brief amounts of time with powerful, short spark discharges?

@Wyttenbach: The provisional US patent application I linked was filed on August 1st 2014. The Lugano report was released on October 2014.

With beta particles, electricity can also be directly produced. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betavoltaic_device

It looks like a european patent application for Rossi's Fluid Heater patent was recently published. The Documents tab in that page contains a link to a provisional US patent application describing what the "Rossi effect" is.

https://patentscope.wipo.int/s…621/PDOC/WO2016018851.pdf

Relevant excerpt:

In the european patent application there are a few new paragraphs compared to the USPTO version which refer to this provisional patent application.

Quote

In one embodiment, the reagents are placed in the reaction chamber at a pressure of 3-6 bar and a temperature of from 400 C to 600 C. An anode is placed at one side of the reactor and a cathode is placed at the other side of the reactor. This accelerates electrons between them to an extent sufficient to have very high energy, in excess of 100 KeV. Regulation of the electron energy can be carried out by regulating the electric field between the cathode and the anode .

Quote

It should be noted that other heating sources can be used, including heat sources that rely on combustion of, for example, natural gas, as well as heat sources that rely on electrical induction. The use of gas thus avoids the need to have a source of electrical energy for initiating the reaction.

It does sound like it will be a short presentation, but other abstracts in the same session (and others) don't seem fringe:
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR16/Session/E11

Given the amount of speakers from this and other sessions from the same meeting I agree however that it likely won't have much impact on its own.
It appears it's the only one related with LENR.

@axil: actually, from this paper (paywalled) from Holmlid which I've incidentally recently read it appears that the Potassium Rydberg matter cloud surrounding the heated K:Fe2O3 catalyst can get depleted in some circumstances (untreated, fresh catalyst - called 'emitter' - and relatively low temperature). Here's an excerpt from the relevant paragraphs:

This probably doesn't exactly apply to Hydrogen Rydberg matter (which is formed in this case when Rydberg atoms and matter of potassium transfer their excitation energy to hydrogen atoms and molecules - as far as I have learned), but I think the same would probably also happen in that case. After all he is using a laser beam to disrupt it and study the fragments produced through TOF mass spectrometry.

By the way, some time ago I speculated that Parkhomov might have put the contents of a lithium battery in his March 2015 experiment (I've been criticized for suggesting this), as according to the fuel/ash analysis he showed at ICCF19 [1] there was a significant amount of Mn in the fuel, a rather large amount of Li in the ash inconsistent with the claimed LiAlH4 quantity, and (although I didn't relate it to lithium batteries at that time) a high carbon content. Coincidentally, several commercial Li-ion batteries employ a Lithium Manganese Oxide (LiMn2O4) cathode and a graphite anode [2].

So even though Parkhomov never claimed using the content of a Li-ion battery, s_gray's experiment reminded me of that.

[1] http://i.imgur.com/89GydW5.jpg
[2] http://batteryuniversity.com/l…icle/types_of_lithium_ion

@s_grey: your criteria for choosing the content of a NiMH battery as a 'fuel' is interesting, in a good way.

The nickel alloy you used might still have had KOH traces, which could be important for observing the effect in the same way lithium is (perhaps even more so in the case of potassium).

You loaded the cell in air without applying a vacuum before starting the test, correct?

Quote from s_grey

1. Fuel - the contents of the Ni-Mh battery.

Useful reference for typical NiMH batteries:
http://www.powerstream.com/BatteryFAQ.html#nmh

Highlights:

• A Ni alloy is usually used at the anode - not pure Ni
• KOH (Potassium hydroxide) generally used as electrolyte

@s_grey: can you post detailed photos of your reactor? Also: could you create a separate thread for your Parkhomov-type experiments and post there all the details?

EDIT: noticed only now that you posted one above. But it would be interesting to know for example more details on powder preparation, exact fuel mixture, cell sealing method, or if you ever tried measuring H2 pressure with a pressure gauge, calorimetry used, etc.

@axil: According to Holmlid in this paper a large and fast compression of molecular hydrogen can cause it to transition to ultra-dense hydrogen with significant release of heat and rapid drop in pressure, which he suggests being the cause of instabilities in inertial confinement hot fusion.

So if one sees what he calls Ultra-dense Hydrogen as a different phase of Hydrogen Rydberg Matter (although again according to him they're not the same thing) / metallic hydrogen, then huge pressures can indeed produce HRM as you're writing.

What is not clear to me (and others) yet is how this could be reconciled with the tendency of RM / ultra-dense H to decay in a non-ideal environment after it is formed.

EDIT: to clarify what I mean, I find sort of peculiar that although it can form both in a vacuum from alkali-promoted catalysts or with huge pressures, it's still only metastable.