NUCLEAR PRODUCTS IN A GAS-LOADIND D/PD AND H/PD SYSTEM G.S.Qiao, X.L.Han, L.C.Kong, S.X.Zheng, H.F.Huang Y.J.Yan, Q.L.Wu, Y.Deng, S.L.Lei, X.Z.Li Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, CHINA ABSTRACT In a gas-loading D/Pd or H/Pd system, the nuclear products have been identified using mass spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, electron probe microanalysis, and solid state nuclear track detector. In contrast with the electrolytic cell in most of the cold fusion experiments, gas-loading system has the advantage of less contamination, and provides one more compelling evidence. 1. Introduction 9 years after the first announcement of Fleischmann and Pons experiment, cold fusion community has confirmed a single fact: that is excess heat with no strong neutron and Gamma radiation. Two different conclusions were extracted from this single fact: (1) excess heat is a mistake because most of physicists believe that excess heat has to have strong neutron and Gamma radiation; (2) excess heat is a real phenomenon, because the experimentalists persist that their instruments and observation are reliable, although they do not understand the mechanism of this phenomenon. The key issue to reconcile these two different conclusions is to find any nuclear products other than neutron or Gamma radiation. The low energy nuclear transmutation is an important object for this purpose. The nuclear transmutations in the cold fusion experiments have been reported in gasdischarge and electrolytic systems, but it was not paid enough attention until a series of quantified measurements were presented in the Second International Low Energy Nuclear Reactions Conference and ICCF-6 in 1996. In order to confirm these low energy nuclear transmutations, the exclusion of any possible contamination was essential. Our gas loading experiment has the advantage of less contamination; therefore, various technologies were applied to our gas loading D/Pd and H/Pd systems to identify any possible nuclear products. 2. Helium in the Gas-loading D/Pd System. Among the possible nuclear products, helium is the first object based on the D+D reaction. Miles and Arata showed that there were helium generated in the heavy water electrolytic system when the excess heat was generated. Hence, the gas in our gas-loading D/Pd system was analysed using mass spectroscopy (NG-1000). In order to distinguish the helium from the D 2 gas ( m( 4 He) = 4.00260, m(d 2 ) = Pt Thermometer Water Manometer Tungsten Palladium Quartz Fig.1 Schematics of Gas-loading System
4.02820 ), high resolution mass spectroscopy was applied. The resolution, (m/ m), has to be greater than 156; however, the resolution of the mass spectroscopy in our experiment(ng- 1000) is greater than 700. The gas-loading system has been described in details in the proceedings of ICCF-6 [1]. To avoid the contamination from the air, we detect the ratio of 4 He to 20 Ne of the sample gas in the dewar in parallel with the air sample. Fig.2 shows the signal diagram in this experiment. We took the sample gas from the gas-loading D/Pd dewar, where the excess heat experiment were done for more than one year. The ratio of 4 He/ 20 Ne in this sample gas was 0.55. This ratio for the air sample was measured just before and after the sample test. This ratio of 4 He/ 20 Ne for the standard air should be 0.318, and this ratio for our air samples are 0.296, 0.299, respectively. Thus, the accuracy is good enough to show there is a helium source in the deuterium gas-loading dewar. We analyse the helium components in the original deuterium gas also. The absolute value of helium component is very low ; however, the ratio of 4 He/ 20 Ne=0.318 is very close to that of standard air. This confirms the conclusion that the helium source is associated with deuterium plus palladium system. 3. Nuclear Products in the Hydrogenloaded Palladium In our gas-loading system, the H/Pd system was used as a control for excess heat measurement. Now it turns out to be a good system to detect the nuclear transmutation as well. After one year of loading experiment, Zinc was found on the surface of hydrogen-loaded palladium wire Fig.2 Mass-spectroscopy measurement of the ratio of Helium-4 to Neon-20 for pure deuterium gas, air sample before test, gas sample from D/Pd dewar, and air sample after test. (Fig.3) [2]. In order to exclude the possibility of contamination, we searched the rare-earth elements among the other nuclear products. Terbium( 65 Tb) on the surface of the hydrogenloaded palladium was found (Fig.4 and Fig.5) [3]. Now we report the nuclear signal emitted by hydrogen-loaded palladium thin film. The solid state nuclear track detector (CR-39) was used to detect any energetic charged particle from the surface of palladium thin film. Fig.6 shows that a piece of hydrogen-loaded palladium thin film was sandwiched in between two pieces of CR-39 detector. 5½ months later, CR-39 was etched in 6.8N NaOH solution at 70 o C for 5 hours, under the microscopy the etch pits were clearly shown. There is a big difference between the area covered by hydrogen loaded palladium film and the area not covered by hydrogen loaded palladium film. The number density of the pits is 30 times greater than that of background. An interesting signal was found in a pair of CR-39 numbered 1A178 and 1A148. The signals appeared in the same position with the similar pattern. It reveals that there might be an active region on the palladium thin film, which emitted energetic charged particles in both directions. Since the thickness of the thin film is about 1 micron, it gives an estimation of the energy of the charged particle also, which must be in the order of MeV.
4. Discussion Zn components appeared in the Pd electrode in the early literature on cold fusion research also. It was considered as a contamination. Indeed this was one of the important evidences for nuclear signal. However, it means that cold fusion is just a part of this new category of anomalous phenomena in D/Pd, H/Pd or Hydrogen/Metal system. Cold fission might be another part of this anomalous phenomena. The three body (3D) nuclear reaction[4] is also a part of this anomalous phenomena. However, they might be all predicted by the selective resonant tunneling model.[5]. 5. Acknowledgments. This work is supported by the State Commission of Science and Technology, the Natural Science Foundation of China (Contract Number 19645005), and the Fundamental Research Fund of Tsinghua University. References [1] X.Z.Li, et al., Excess Heat Measurement in Gas-loading D/Pd System, Journal of New Energy, vol.1, no.4, Fall 1996, p.34; see also in Progress in New Hydrogen Energy, Proceedings of International Conference on Cold Fusion, Vol.2, edited by M.Okamoto, October 13-18,1996, Japan, (Published by New Energy and Technology Development Organization, and Institute of Applied Energy) p.455. [2]G.S.Qiao, X.Z.Li, et al., Nuclear Transmutation in a Gas-Loading H/Pd System, Journal of New Energy, vol.2, no.2, Summer, 1997, p.48. [3]X.Z.Li, G.S.Qiao, et al., Selective Resonant Tunneling and Nuclear Transmutation in a Gas-Loading H/Pd System, The 5-th Proceedings of Russian Conference on Cold Fusion and Nuclear Transmutation, Sochi, Sept. 28-Oct.4, 1997. [4]A.Takahashi, et al., Detection of Three-body Deuteron Fusion in Titanium-Deuteride under the Stimulation by Deuteron Beam, preprint (1998, March 6) [5] X.Z.Li, The 3-Dimensional Resonance Tunneling in Chemically Assisted Nuclear Fission and Fusion Reactions, The Proceedings of ICCF-5, Dec. 6-9, 1993, Lahaina, USA, Vol.4, 2-1 (1994), EPRI TR-104188-V4. (a) (b) Fig.3 (a) EDS analysis of the original palladium wire, (b) EDS analysis of the hydrogen-loaded palladium wire.
Fig.4 EDS analysis of hydrogen-loaded Pd wire showing Tb peak Fig. 5 Electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) in WDX (Wave-length Disperse X-ray) mode showing Terbium distribution on the surface of palladium wire loaded with hydrogen in a gas-loading system
1A178 1A148 o o Fig.6 The nuclear signal in the solid state nuclear track detector(cr-39)