Cold Fusion: Is it possible?

[IsaacAsimov]

The Chinese have almost perfected hot fusion. I think we should take a look at cold fusion again. I have made some notes on the subject. Here they are:

Plan A: Collide 2 deuterium nuclei.
Deuterium (or hydrogen-2) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being protium, or hydrogen-1). The nucleus of a deuterium atom, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one neutron, whereas the far more common protium has no neutron in the nucleus. Deuterium has an abundance in Earth's oceans of about one atom in 6420 of hydrogen. My idea: collide 2 deuterium nuclei at high speeds in opposite directions (use a cyclotron), causing them to fuse into helium nuclei, which are also called alpha particles, and releasing a lot of energy according to Einstein's famous equation, E=mc^2. You have to collide the particles at the optimum relative velocity: If it's too fast, the particles will collide and fly apart. If the relative velocity is too low, the particles will repel each other and won't collide at all. An alpha particle is often a helium ion with a +2 charge (missing its 2 electrons). If the ion gains electrons from its environment, the alpha particle becomes a normal (electrically neutral) helium atom.

Plan B: Bombard tritium (hysrogen-3, which has one proton and two neutrons in the nucleus) atoms with protons. Some of the protons will hit the nucleus and fuse, releasing energy.

Plan  C : Instead of heating up hydrogen atoms, cool down H2 gas (to possibly near 0 K), which will contract the volume of gas and make the hydrogen atoms fuse together.

Plan  D : Use water bubbles that travel at 4 times the speed of sound (mach 4) to smash deuterium nuclei together.

Plan E: muon-catalyzed fusion: put a muon, which has a negative charge, in place of the electron in an H2 molecule, and the two protons will be drawn together by the muon, which has a larger mass than an electron.

Plan F: Put protons in a carbon nanotube and apply pressure to both ends. This approach converts a 3D problem into a linear problem.

Out of plans A - F, I would choose Plan A and Plan F because they are more likely than the other plans to result in nuclear fusion.

 

[Strange]

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Moderator Note

Moved to Speculations. Note the special rules for this section of the forum; your claims require support. So please show evidence / calculations that these claimed methods will actually result in fusion and a net release of energy.

 

[swansont]

Pick one of these and present an analysis of how it would work in a "cold" system.

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, IsaacAsimov said:

Plan A: Collide 2 deuterium nuclei. (...)

Plan B: Bombard tritium (hydrogen-3, which has one proton and two neutrons in the nucleus) atoms with protons. Some of the protons will hit the nucleus and fuse, releasing energy.

Fusion of Tritium with Deuterium yields 17.6 MeV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronvolt

1 MeV = 1 million electronvolts = 1,000,000.0 eV

where

1 eV = 1.6021766 * 10^-19 J

so

17.6 *1,000,000.0 * 1.6021766 * 10^-19 J = 2.819830816e-12 J

To get 1 Watt macroscopic power you need 1 W / 2.819830816e-12 J = ~3.55* 10^11 fusion reactions per SECOND.

It's ~355 billions of reactions per second.

Single LED takes usually 20 mA and 5 V = 0.1 Watt power.

To make it working in the simplest ordinary electronic device with batteries (e.g. hand remote TV controller), you would need 35 billions fusion reactions per second with 100% efficiency.

 

To accelerate atom inside of particle accelerator, there are used e.g. x-rays (or UVs) which are ionizing matter, to eject electron(s) from it. Ion can be controlled and accelerated by external electric field (created by powerful capacitors). Only fraction of x-rays/UVs are ejecting electron from ion-to-be. Circular accelerators also need powerful electromagnets to bend path of ions. They are made with superconductors to decrease needed power. Superconductors work under very low temperature. Cooling down entire device takes significant amount of energy.

i.e. there is more energy spend on ionization of matter, acceleration, superconducting electromagnets etc. etc. than fusion reaction is releasing.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Sensei

[IsaacAsimov]

I appreciate you responding, Sensei.

Thank you for doing the calculations to a high degree of accuracy, even though it proves that deuterium collisions would produce less energy than is put in.

Well, there's still Plans C - F.

Sincerely,

IsaacAsimov
 

[Strange]

10 minutes ago, IsaacAsimov said:

Well, there's still Plans C - F.

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Moderator Note

If you do not show your calculations for these in the next post, this thread will be closed.

 

[Sensei]

2 hours ago, IsaacAsimov said:

Plan  C : Instead of heating up hydrogen atoms, cool down H2 gas (to possibly near 0 K), which will contract the volume of gas and make the hydrogen atoms fuse together.

Hydrogen (H-1) cooled down will change state of the matter to liquid state (at −252.879 °C) then to solid state (at −259.16 °C ).

Deuterium and Tritium should have them slightly a bit different than above. If atoms would fuse together spontaneously (as suggested by you above), it should be detected.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, IsaacAsimov said:

I appreciate you responding, Sensei.

Thank you for doing the calculations to a high degree of accuracy, even though it proves that deuterium collisions would produce less energy than is put in.

Well, there's still Plans C - F.

Sincerely,

IsaacAsimov
 

They all have issues, which is why I asked you to pick one for analysis. 

[IsaacAsimov]

Plan D has promise, because the deuterium atoms are travelling at such a high velocity (Mach 4) that they could get in close proximity to stationary deuterium atoms and cause fusion.

Plan E: Muons are much heavier than electrons, so would pull the hydrogen atoms together as they orbited around them. However, muons decay rapidly, but travel at such a high velocity after leaving the cyclotron, that they experience time dilation, so they last much longer than stationary muons. We could try using other negatively charged particles, such as kaons and pions, in place of electrons.

Plan F: The carbon nanotubes would only let protons through in single file because they have such a small diameter. Applying pressure to both ends of the nanotube might cause the protons to fuse together, forming helium atoms. The nanotubes could be put in a pressurized chamber, which is how pressure could be applied to the protons. Neutrons could be introduced through tiny openings on the surface of the nanotubes, which would keep the protons together.

[MigL]

Accelerating protons, deuterium nuclei, tritium nuclei, or alpha particles to the speeds at which they fuse is equivalent to high temperature.
Extremely high temperatures !

I thought you were considering COLD fusion.

[Strange]

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Moderator Note

OK. This is a Science forum. Not a Wild Guess forum. You had your chance. Do not bring this subject up again.