Low Energy Nuclear Reactions – Is the mechanism simple electro magnetic resonance? (Lamaan Ball)

The following article has been submitted by Lamaan Ball

Low Energy Nuclear Reactions – Is the mechanism simple electro magnetic resonance?

For some years now I have followed the claims of Cold Fusion given by Pons and Fleischmann. As a student of physics, this potential source of energy was exciting and continues to be so. It seems to most that this was disproved many years ago, but to those paying attention, there have been many efforts to reproduce the effects seen and some claim quite a lot of success.

The closest to getting a commercial product seems to be Andrea Rossi, and some of his work has been reproduced. Different theories try to explain how this works. Here I will attempt to explain how I think it happens. I will try to keep the explanation simple enough for anyone to understand.

When a flute player blows across the hole, waves are formed inside the flute of air pressure dependent on the length of the flute. The frequency depends on the dimensions of the space it bounces around and whether or not a note comes out depends on blowing fast enough to overcome the loss of energy of the sound escaping. In this action we turn white noise (blowing) into very specific frequencies of sound. This is the process of resonance.

Similar mechanisms work with other kinds of waves. In particular, electric fields in conducting materials could be made to resonate. If we take a conducting stick of metal and subject it to an electric or magnetic field pulse, a wave will bounce back and forth in the metal travelling at or close to the speed of light. Repeating the pulses at a rate before this wave decays will produce a ‘ringing’ of the metal at its resonant frequencies determined by its dimensions. For example, a high frequency electro-magnetic field pulsing on a metal rod of about 12 cm, should produce electro-magnetic field waves inside the metal of a similar length as a microwave oven. This could be used to provide a highly efficient way to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen gasses. It is not free energy in this instance but it might be a very efficient way to store energy as hydrogen and oxygen gasses that when recombined could power a car.

This is not nuclear though. In Andrea Rossi’s patents the key ingredients are a mixture of nickel and lithium hydrides (to read more see for example https://e-catworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Parkhomovetal.pdf)

What appears to be happening are isotope changes, with neutrons migrating from lithium into nickel. To free a lithium neutron would take energy at least equal to the change in binding energy for a lithium atom to change from Li7 to Li6, Li7 has more binding energy of neutrons than Li6. Working out how much energy is needed to free a neutron will give us the energy of a photon needed to do it. The photon would come from a resonating electro-magnetic wave. Knowing the photon energy will tell us its frequency. This will tell us the size of the distance needed for resonances. Skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid the mathematics.

Li7 has a binding energy per nucleon of 5.60629 MeV giving it a total binding energy of 39.244037MeV. Li6 has a binding energy per nucleon of 5.332345Mev giving it a total binding energy of 31.99407Mev. If we want a reaction of Li7 + gamma -> Li6 + free neutron, then the photon (gamma) must provide the energy difference. This is 39.244037MeV – 31.99407Mev = 7.249967MeV. This gives us the frequency by E=hf for a photon. So the energy in Joules (SI units) is E=7.249967MeV x 1.60E-13J/MeV = 1.16E-12 Joules, which give us f=1.16E-12/6.63E-34 = 1.75E+21Hz. To get the resonant distance needed for such a photon, we can say that the speed of the wave is close to the speed of light. The time of one oscillation will give us a distance for a resonance mode. This is then 1/f = 5.70E-22 seconds. How far does light travel in this time? d=ct where d is distance and c is the speed of light and t is time. This gives us a distance of 3E+8 x 5.7E-22 = 1.7E-13 metres.

This distance is somewhere between the typical size of atoms at about 1E-10 metres and atomic nuclei at about 1E-15 metres. So what is the resonance we could get? It turns out that when atoms form ionic crystals the electron from one atom is essentially moved to the other atom making it into a cation. This gives us what is called an ionic atom radius. For hydrogen that has only one electron, when it is bound in a solid such as a hydride its size is 1.2E-12 metres which is in spitting distance of our distance needed for a resonance. Resonances over this distance could be built up with electro-magnetic noise and regular electro-magnetic pulses to stop their decay like blowing on a flute produces a note. In fact it produces many notes. The resonant frequencies are all the multiples of half a wavelength so although the main energy of the resonant waves has frequency determined by half the distance, other frequencies are produced for waves at fractions of the length of the resonant distances such as 1/2 the distance, 1/4 the distance, 1/8 the distance. A resonance at 1/8th the ionic hydrogen size would be just about right size to create photons that could release neutrons from Li7.

If this slow neutron was absorbed by Ni58 the binding energy it would gain is 59 x 8.73657 – 58 x 8.732041  = 8.999Mev meaning for each atom isotope transformation by this mechanism we have a gain of energy

Li7 + Ni58 => Li6 + Ni59 + 1.75 MeV

For gram of fuel this yields approx.  (6.02214179E+23)/65 x 1.75 x 1.16E-12MeV/J = 18,807,612,052J/g which is 18TJ/Kg this compares to an energy density of diesel fuel of 48 MJ/Kg

This means that a teaspoon of fuel could run your car for a year.