Anomalous Isotopic Distribution in Palladium Cathode after Electrolysis

It was confirmed by several analytic methods that reaction products with mass number ranging from 20 to 28, 46 to 54, and 72 to 82 are produced in palladium cathodes subjected to electrolysis in a heavy water solution at high pressure, high temperature, and high current density for one month. Isotopic distributions were radically different from the natural ones. INTRODUCTION Nuclear reactions in a solid electrode at ordinary temperatures have been reported by many experimenters since 1989. However, this phenomenon is still not well accepted among researchers because of poor reproducibility and control. What is urgently needed now is to obtain precise and quantitative relationships between potential nuclear reactions and their corresponding reaction products. If nuclear reactions induced by electrochemical reaction occur in solid electrodes, there must be clear evidence such as the evolution of radioisotopes and radiation. Moreover, the evolution of the reaction products should be explained in terms of the nuclear mechanisms. In this work, evidence which indicates the occurrence of some nuclear reactions is presented, in the form of transmuted elements within the cathode and on the cathode surface. The anomalous isotopic distribution of these elements shows they do not come from contamination. For example, natural copper is 70% Cu, and 30% Cu. But the copper found in the cathode was 63 65 100% Cu, with no detectable levels of Cu. Natural isotopic distribution varies by less than 0.001% for copper. 63 65 EXPERIMENTAL Palladium rods used were of high purity (99.97% min.) supplied by Tanaka Noble Metals, Ltd. Impurities in the sample were as follows: B: 110 ppm, Si: 10, Ca: 9, Cr: 10, Cu: 6, Ti: 5, Ag: 44, Mg: 1, Pt: 20 and Au: 23. Nothing more was detected by atomic absorption photospectroscopy. Heavy water was supplied by Showa Denko, Ltd. It is 99.75% pure and includes 0.077 micro Ci/dm of tritium. The heavy water was purified once in a quartz glass distiller. 3 Reagent grade lithium hydroxide was obtained from Merck, Ltd. Impurities in the reagent were specified as follows: Li CO : 2% max, Cl: 0.05%, Pb: 20 ppm, Ca: 200, Fe: 20, K: 200 and Na: 200. The anode and recombiner catalyst 2 3 were, respectively, a high purity (99.99%) Pt plate and a Pt mesh. The Pt metal is specified to contain impurities as follows: Rh: 18 ppm, Si, Cr and Pd: 2 ppm, Au, Ag, B, Ca, Cu and Fe: less than 1 ppm. Other impurities were under the limits of detection. Electrolysis was performed in a closed cell made of stainless steel. The cell inner wall was coated with 1 mm thick Teflon. The details have been described elsewhere [1]. Before the electrolyte was added to the Pd cell, it was pre-electrolyzed with Pt electrodes at 1 A and 150EC for 6 x 10 s (7 days). Electrolysis experiments were performed 5 at a current density of 0.2 A cm or total current of 6.6 A at 10 n for 2.76 x 10 s (32 days). The sample electrodes 2 5 6 were analyzed for element detection by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA). Mizuno, T., T. Ohmori, and M. Enyo, Anomalous Isotopic Distribution in Palladium Cathode After Electrolysis. J. New Energy, 1996. 1(2): p. 37.