I am working with a simple DC cirquit. It is a power supply (internal
r=1.6 hms) with a voltmeter at its output. An electrolytic cell
(platinum anode and nickel cathode) is connected to the power supply,
through an ammeter. What can be more simple?
The current versus voltage relation is different from what one would
expect from a metallic resistor. First the current is ~zero (below ~10
microamps that I would notice), up to about 2.9 volts. Then the current
starts changing linearly at the rate of about 12.4 V/A, up to 650 mA at
11 volts. When the concentration of the electrolyte (Li2SO4 in water)
doubles (goes from 0.21 M to 0.42 M) the threshold remains 2.9 but the
slope of the line lbecomes 11 V/A.
I have three questions.
1) How to interpret the threshold of 2.9 volts? (I do not have a table
of electromotive potentials for different metals at home. Is 2.9 a
difference between Ni and Pt?)
2) I expected the slope to change from 14 to be 7 (because by doubling
the concentration I doubled the number of free carriers in my liquid
resistor). Why was the second slope 11 and not 7? (Note that the
internal r of my power supply is by nearly one order of magnitude
smaller that the slopes.)
3) The PD never exceeds 10 V. Large electrolytic capacitors for low
voltages are available. Suppose a capacitor of that kind is connected
in parallel with my voltmeter (at the output of the power supply).
Would this make the internal resistance of the source much smaller? My
currents never exceed 0.6 A.
P.S.
This question has nothing to do with cold fusion because neither heavy
water nor palladium are used. But if you perform this experiment you
will detect alpha particles both in the electrolyte and outside the
electrolytic cell (next to its glass wall. I observed this anomaly in
all three experiments performed so far. The fourth experiment is in
progress. The observed anomaly was discovered by Richard Oriani, a
rertired material scientist from University of Minnesota. That is why I
am going to refer to it as Oriani effect. We are using CR-39 to detect
particles. We will be happy to provide details to anybody who might be
interested in replication of the experiment. We think that if more
people confirm the results (reproducibility is nearly 100%) then it
will be easier to publish them.
Nuclear particles, most likely alphas, are recorded at the rate of up
to 30 tracks per hour, per square centimeter (of the the detector
area). Such average rates, consistent with observations of Steven
Jones, often exceed the background by a factor of 100 or more. But one
has to do a lot of checking to rule out all conceivable sources of
contamination. This takes a lot of time. Join us if you, or your
students, are interested.
Ludwik Kowalski
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