At 06:13 AM 11/3/2009, Michel Jullian wrote:
2009/11/3 Abd ul-Rahman Lomax
<<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]>:
...
>>> It should be noted that the SPAWAR video is showing the back side
>>> of the cathode, not the side facing the anode.
>>
>> See Figure 1 of:
>>
>>
<http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSpolarizedd.pdf>http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSpolarizedd.pdf
>>
>> It shows the camera on the outside, next the Mylar film, next the
>> *unsealed* surface of the cathode. It appears to me there is
>> electrolyte between the Mylar and the surface. My experience with
>> anode spots is they form well on both sides.
>
> "unsealed surface"? The mylar film is a window into the cell. Next to it is
> the cathode. And on the other side of the cell, apparently, not shown, is
> the anode. However, the cathode was not a foil, as I wrote, but a "Ni
> screen." It's still viewed from the "back,"
but it's more complex than I had
> thought. Somehow I thought this was a foil cathode.
Yes, it's Ni screen, it's viewed from the back
through a Mylar window and a thin layer of
intervening electrolyte, and Horace is
definitely right that the observed hot spots occur _on the back side_:
<http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSlenrresear.pdf>http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSlenrresear.pdf
:
I had no doubt about that. The question is
whether the NAE is on that side or the other! (or in the middle)
<<The steep temperature gradients of the hot spots, Figure 1c,
indicate that the heat sources are of high
intensity and located very close to the contact surface.
Figure 1. ...(b) View of the obverse side of the cathode showing the
distribution of hot spots ranging from <29°C
(purple) to >49°C (white). (c) Temperature
gradients on the back side of the cathode.>>
So, what is the direction of the deuterium flux
through the back surface of a Pd cathode close
to a plastic window do you think? Out, because
electrolyte paths to get there are more resistive.
My understanding has been that the deposition
preferentially occurs on the side toward the
anode, because of that, with a foil cathode. But what do I know?
This confirms my suggestion, earlier in this
thread, that the hot spots occur where the
deuterium desorbs from Pd deuteride to D2 gas
(not solvated D Horace), which chemically is an endothermic reaction.
Am I the only one to see how significant this is?
No, I see your point, except I think you are
assuming that the reaction is occurring on that
side. I agree that the wording that you have
quoted mentions "close to the contact surface"
appears to refer to the contact between the
cathode and the mylar. But "high intensity" could
refer to a temperature difference of only more
than twenty degrees C. We know that the real hot
spots melt palladium. What would they do to mylar?
But I don't think they would happen next to
mylar, because deuterium wouldn't be entering the
lattice there. It could possibly leave it, but entry would be repressed.
