Calorimetric Studies of Palladium Alloy Cathodes Using Fleischmann-Pons Dewar Type Cells

My first three experiments conducted at NHE using the Fleischmann-Pons (F-P) Dewar type cells investigated the Pd-Ce-B, Pd-B, and Pd-Ce alloy cathodes. Significant excess power was produced from the cells using the Pd-B and Pd-Ce alloy cathodes. The Pd-Ce-B alloy, in contrast, showed no measureable excess power effects. Previous experiments at China Lake using similar Pd-B alloy cathodes prepared by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) produced excess heat in seven out of eight experiments. The same Pd-Ce cathode that was used at NHE also produced significant excess power in previous experiments at China Lake. Due to the controversy over methods of data analysis for the F-P cells (see ICCF-5 Proceedings, 1995, pp. 105-115), I developed my own methods while at NHE. As I refined my methods for evaluating the calorimetric measurements, they approached more closely the methods outlined by Fleischmann and Pons in their Icarus Systems handbooks available at NHE. The method previously developed by NHE for the analysis of the F-P cells showed no excess heat for any of these same three experiments. The major problem with the NHE method is that a single calibration was used in determining the effective radiative heat transfer coefficient for the cell. An incorrect heat transfer coefficient can readily confuse the excess heat effect with the calorimetric error for the system. Calorimetric results for the same experiment using the NHE method, my method, and the F-P method for data analysis are compared. The fact that the alternative NHE method showed no excess heat for F-P cells illustrates the problem in transferring calorimetric methods from one laboratory to another. The second laboratory often fails to follow directions and makes changes that compromise the calorimetry. Similar problems were encountered in the attempt to transfer the China Lake calorimetry to NRL, hence excess heat was not observed. INTRODUCTION The New Energy Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan made it possible for me to return to cold fusion and to perform calorimetric experiments for a five-month period as a Guest Researcher at the New Hydrogen Energy (NHE) laboratory in Sapporo, Japan. Two types of isoperibolic calorimeters were used in these studies (1) China Lake type calorimetric cells where the heat transfer is mainly by conduction, and (2) Fleischmann-Pons Dewar type cells where the heat transfer occurs mainly by radiation. The excess power measured at NHE in the China Lake calorimetric cells has been reported elsewhere [1-5]. The focus here will be on three experiments using Pd-Ce-B, Pd-B, and Pd-Ce alloy cathodes in Fleischmann-Pons Dewar type cells. Previous experiments at China Lake using similar Pd-B alloy cathodes prepared by the Naval Research Laboratory produced excess heat in seven out of eight experiments [6,7]. The same Pd-Ce cathode that was used at NHE also produced significant excess power in previous experiments at China Lake [6,7]. The Pd-Ce-B alloy cathode prepared by NRL had never been previously investigated.