Latest cold fusion results fail to win over skeptics
It's been four years since electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons polarized the scientific community into two camps: those who believe they discovered a new phenomenon, dubbed cold fusion, and those who do not. Now, a new calorimetry paper coauthored by Pons and Fleischmann has dumped fresh fuel on the fire, but it doesn't seem to be changing anyone's mind. The paper in question, titled [open quotes]Calorimetry of the Pd-D[sub 2]O system: from simplicity via complications to simplicity[close quotes], was published in the May 3 issue of Physics Letters. As in their earlier work at the University of Utah, Pons and Fleischmann, now working in a Japanese-funded laboratory in the south of France, electrolyze heavy water in open cells containing a palladium cathode and a platinum anode. And, as before, they observe the production of high rates of excess enthalpy--more enthalpy (heat content) than was put into the system and more, they say, than can be accounted for by the chemical changes occurring. So much heat is generated, in fact, that the electrolyte (D[sub 2]O and Li[sub 2]SO[sub 4]) eventually begins to boil. This paper describes the continuing controversy.
- OSTI ID:
- 6274723
- Journal Information:
- Chemical and Engineering News; (United States), Vol. 71:24; ISSN 0009-2347
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COLD FUSION
EVALUATION
CALORIMETRY
CONSTRAINTS
ENTHALPY
HEAVY WATER
LITHIUM HYDROXIDES
LITHIUM SULFATES
PALLADIUM
POTASSIUM CARBONATES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBONATES
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXIDES
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
METALS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLATINUM METALS
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
WATER
700360* - Fusion Reactions- (1992-)