FROM: Jed Rothwell, 72240,1256 TO: Chuck, 73770,1337 DATE: 2/28/94 11:34 AM Re: Piantelli paper IL NUOVO CIMENTO Vol. 107 A, N. 1 pp163-167 Gennaio 1994 NOTE BREVI Anomalous Heat Production in Ni-H Systems. S. FOCARDI(1), R. HABEL(2) and F. PIANTELLI(3) (1) Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universita' - Bologna INFN, Sezione di Bologna - Bologna (2) Istituto di Fisica, Faculta' de Medicina dell'Universita' - Cagliari INFN, Sezione di Cagliari - Cagliari (3) Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universita' - Siena IMO Siena and INFM, Sezione di Siena - Siena (ricevuto il 3 Gennaio 1994; approvato il 12 Gennaio, 1994) Summary. -- Evidence for a 50W anomalous heat production in a hydrogen-loaded nickel rod is reported. PACS 25.70.Jj Fusion and fusion-fission reactions. 1. Introduction. Since the first claim from Fleischmann and Pons [1] for an anomalous production of heat obtained during an electrochemical experiment, a great number of experiments has been devised and performed, in order to prove or disprove the effect. In our opinion, till now, none of the groups involved in these experiments has reached a strong evidence for a consistent anomalous production of heat in a reproducible and controlled way. At the end of 1989 one of us (FP), in an experiment of low-temperature calorimetry (about 200K) on deuterated organic compounds in hydrogen atmosphere, suspected an irregular balance of the heat involved. After several discussions which took place in the following months, we reached the conclusion that the probable responsible for the observed anomaly could have been the nickel support on which the organic sample had been deposited. In order to investigate the process in detail we devised a suitable experiment. After some preliminary tests, the final apparatus which will be described below was assembled at the end of 1992 at the Physics Department of Siena University. 2. Experimental set-up. In fig. 1 the layout of the experimental set-up is shown. FIGURE 1, P164, IS ATTACHED TO THE END OF THIS PAPER IN AN "ASCII ART" RENDITION. IT SHOWS D2 AND H2 CYLINDERS CONNECTED VIA TAPS TO A PRESSURE MEASURING DEVICE (PM), THENCE VIA A TAP TO A VACUUM PUMP AND PM, AND ON VIA ANOTHER TAP TO THE REACTION CHAMBER. ATTACHED TO THE REACTION CHAMBER IS A PM, A VOLTAGE-REGULATED POWER SUPPLY AND CURRENT MONITOR DEVICE. A DATA CAPTURE COMPUTER IS INDICATED AS MONITORING THE HEATER CURRENT AND THE PRESSURE. TITLE: Schematic layout of the experiment. The reaction chamber is made of stainless steel of 50mm diameter and 100mm length. The heater, 1mm diameter platinum, forming 42 turns of 20mm diameter, is placed inside the chamber. The chamber contains also either a nickel cylinder or, alternatively, an appropriate dummy stainless steel rod, both having 5mm diameter and 90mm length, which are placed in contact with a Pt thermometer (Cryophysics Mod. PT 103). The chamber can be evacuated by means of a turbomolecular vacuum pump (Leybold-Heracus Mod Turbovac 120K) and filled with hydrogen or deuterium from gas bottles. The pressure inside the chamber is measured by a piezomanometer (WSE-Waldsee Electronic). The platinum heater coil is powered by a 300W d.c. voltage stabilised power supply (Alpha Elettronica Mod. AL 834). The values of the gas pressure, the heater current and the temperature are continuously monitored by a PC (Olidata PC486) operated data logger. In order to calibrate our experimental apparatus, different measures of the stainless steel temperature were obtained by varying both the heater input power and the hydrogen pressure (typically from 1 bar to the vacuum). FIGURE 2 SHOWS A GRAPH OF TEMPERATURE 200C TO 450C AGAINST HEATER POWER INPUT 0W TO 150W. TWO PLOTS ARE SHOWN, THE FIRST SHOWING A NEARLY STRAIGHT LINE FROM 240C-8W TO 440C-35W; THE SECOND A STRAIGHT LINE 240C-60W TO 440C-145W. BOTH ARE PLOTTED AT 240C, 270C, 300C, 330C, 365C, 400C AND 440C. THE FIRST IS MARKED WITH CIRCLES, THE SECOND WITH DOTS. TITLE: Power-temperature relations for the dummy rod at different values of the pressure inside the chamber (DOTS) hydrogen (p = 570mbar), (CIRCLES) vacuum. In fig.2 we show only two data sets: one obtained under vacuum conditions and another with hydrogen pressure of 570mbar. All the curves obtained for hydrogen pressure values different from zero turned out to be practically independent of the hydrogen pressure in the range of values of interest. Several measurements showed that the reproducibility range for each curve lies within 1 degree centigrade. The plot evidences the effect of the heat conduction of the gas on the central rod equilibrium temperature. 3. Experimental results. The experiment was planned to study the behaviour of deuterated nickel samples with respect to any possible anomalous production of heat. To begin, we used hydrogen as a filling gas for two different purposes: a) to determine the loading cycle of the gas into the nickel sample and the related thermal chemical-physical effects. b) to perform, at the same time, a -null experiment-. The gas loading cycle was explored in several runs. We found that the maximum filling occured when the nickel temperature was greater than 173C and the gas pressure below the atmospheric one. The typical amount of gas loaded in each loading step is of the order of 0.051atm at 400K. The loading process showed soon that something was going in an unexpected way. In fact, after several loading steps, the gas absorption was accompanied by a strong rise of the rod temperature standing high for such a long time, to render the heat production involved incompatible with any classical theory. FIGURE 3 SHOWS A GRAPH WITH AXES 400-480C AND TIME 0-300 MINUTES. THE TEMPERATURE SHOWS A RAPID RISE OVER PERHAPS 5 MINUTES FROM APPROX 440C TO A PEAK OF JUST BELOW 480C. THE TEMPERATURE DROPS OVER ANOTHER APPROX 5 MINS TO APPROX 475C, WHERE IT REMAINS (TO END OF CURVE AT 275MIN APPROX). THERE IS SLIGHT WAVERING OF THE TEMPERATURE OVER A RANGE OF PERHAPS 3C. IT ALSO SHOWS A SECOND GRAPH WITH A PRESSURE AXIS 200-600mb, SAME TIME AXIS. IN THIS GRAPH THE PRESSURE RISES OVER PERHAPS 5 MINS FROM 300mb TO 570mb, FALLING BACK OVER A LONGER PERIOD OF PERAPS 15 MIN TO 500mb WHERE IT REMAINS, ALTHOUGH WITH FLUCTUATIONS OF PERHAPS 8mb WITH A SHORT TIME CONSTANT. TITLE: Sample temperature and hydrogen pressure vs. time, during an -anomalous- loading step. Figure 3 shows the time dependence of nickel temperature and gas pressure during a typical anomalous loading step, performed at fixed heater power input. The temperature increase obtained would require, as shown by the right curve of fig. 2, an extra input power to the coil of about 20W. Actually, due to the voltage stabilisation of the heater power supply, and to the rise of the coil resistance with the temperature, the electrical input power decreases. Therefore, to justify the produced increase of temperature we need to invoke the existence of an internal power source. With repeated cycles we were able to push such power -imbalance- up to about 50W. A family of curves showing the nickel temperature vs. the external input power, for two values of the power -imbalance- is reported in fig. 4. FIGURE 4 HAS AN AXIS OF NICKEL TEMP 0-500C, AND ONE FOR HEATER POWER 0-200W. TITLE: Temperature vs. heater-power curves family for a loaded nickel sample at different values of power -imbalance- FIRST 0W, SECOND 20W, THIRD 50W. the dummy rod and the unloaded Ni rod are represented by the 0W lower -imbalance- curve. THE FIRST CURVE RUNS FROM 0W TO 155W. SLIGHT CURVATURE CLOCKWISE UNTIL 40W-190C, THEN PRETTY STRAIGHT TO 1555W-450C. THE SECOND RUNS FROM 25W-170C AND HAS A VERY SLIGHT CLOCKWISE CURVATURE TO 130W-480C. THE THIRD RUNS FROM 30W-220C UP TO 38W-260C THEN WITH VERY SLIGHT CLOCKWISE CURVATURE TO 110W-500C. ESSENTIALLY EACH CURVE IS SEPARATED FROM THE ONE BELOW BY ABOUT 60C AND 20W. FIGURE 5 HAS NICKEL ROD TEMP AXIS OF 100-500C, AND HEATER POWER INPUT AXIS OF 20-160W. TITLE: Heater coil and nickel rod cycles in the (W,T) diagram, at 20W power -imbalance- . IT SHOWS BOTH ROD AND COIL TEMPERATURES. THE CURVE STARTS AT 110C-30W AND RUNS PRETTY STRAIGHT TO 400C-140W THEN TURNS STEEPER TO 440C-150W, UP AND BACK TO 475C-140W AND BACK DOWN ALMOST STRAIGHT TO 160C-25W. THE Pt TEMPERATURE IS ALSO SHOWN AT VARIOUS POINTS, ALWAYS INSIDE THE CURVE, WHICH MEANS THAT T(Pt) > T(Ni) ON THE WAY UP, AND T(Ni) > T(Pt) ON THE WAY DOWN. Figure 5 shows the values of the heater coil and nickel rod temperatures in the phase-space diagram (W,T) obtained for one cycle at 20W power -imbalance-. The cycle is counterclockwise and starts from the lower part of the curve. From that figure it can be immediately seen that in the lower part of the curve there is a heat transfer from the coil to the nickel, whereas in the upper one the process is reversed. This gives evidence for an internal (to the nickel) heat source. 4. Discussion and conclusions. Up to now we are not able to formulate any consistent model which comprehends the phenomenon. Nevertheless we can state a few standpoints on the basis of the measurements performed. i) The system can be reliably controlled, as the curves of fig. 4 show, allowing for different working points. ii) The system has been maintained at a mean -power imbalance- of 44W for a period of twenty-four days (corresponding to about 90MJ), after that it has been stopped. This amount of energy is beyond that produced in any known chemical reaction involving H2 and Ni, being at least three orders of magnitude larger. iii) From fig. 4 it appears that the power required to maintain the unloaded Ni sample at a fixed temperature can be up to twice the one required for the loaded Ni. This -power imbalance- can be considered the -gain- of the system. iv) No penetrating radiation (neutrons, gamma-rays) was detected above the background level during the process. These four points are all we can state so far on the basis of the work done. Work is now in progress to verify as a possible candidate for the heat generation the reaction (p,D), where D is that naturally contained in hydrogen. * * * Thanks are due to S. Bottari, E. Corsi, A. Marchini and A. Pifferi for their invaluable technical support. REFERENCES [1] M. FLEISCHMANN, M. HAWKINS and S.PONS; J. Electroanal. Chem., 261,301 (1989). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Fig 1. Schematic layout of the experiment. _______ _______ | PM1 | | PM3 | | | | | |-| |-| |-| |-| ||=========================|| | | | | || || | | | | ....||...----heater ---------- || | | | | . || | | || | | | | . || | SAMPLE*HERE | ||----------| |---------| |------------- . || ..|...PtTherm | X X | . || . --------------------- ||---| |--------| |---------| |------| | . || . || | | | | | | | | . ||=========================|| __| |__ | | | | | | . . | | |X| | | | | . ................ | PM2 | | | | | | | . . |-----| | | |X| |X| . _______ _____.____ . ___| |___ | | | | .....| RPS |.....| i Pt P |........... | | | | | | |-----| |--------| |vacuum | | | | | . . |pump | !-| |-! !-| |-! . _____.____ | | ! ! ! ! ___ | | |-------| ! H2 ! ! D2 ! |V| |Computer| ! ! ! ! |-| | | !-----! !-----! |--------| Key: .... Wires ===|| || Metal canister ----| | Pipes, computer, vacuum pump, etc. X Valve in pipe SAMPLE*HERE Ni or dummy steel rod PtTherm Pt thermometer on sample rod ! H2 ! H2 cylinder (supply of gas) ! D2 ! D2 cylinder