Real time gas analysis?
I am excited to share a report prepared for MFMP by an enthusiastic and very intelligent person. We would appreciate as much feedback as possible on this concept.
Hello, I am Nikita Alexandrov, a chemist and aerospace/applied physics researcher with interests in LENR analytics, LENR commercialization and LENR "bolt on" technologies.
Gas analysis is critical in proving that LENR effects are taking place. Once experiments produce excess heat reliably the next step is to test for nuclear "ash" or products such as tritium/helium isotopes which were not present initially.
I wrote this report in hopes of supplying the LENR community with a jumping off point for a low cost gas analysis unit.
The gas analysis unit is based on a Residual Gas Analyzer, basically a stripped down version of a mass spectrometer.
These units can be bought for less than 6000$ and often go for only a few hundred on ebay, they are a tinkerers dream!
For LENR research we must be able to differentiate molecules with similar masses, something that is difficult to do with a normal RGA.
By tweaking the ionization filament power supply gasses can be identified based on their ionization potential.
This allows for the identification of nuclear products with a standard, low cost instrument.
Please read the report and give your opinion about how to interface to the RGA platform, we need to be able to tweak the driving circuits.
It may be possible to write custom software which changes the RGA settings and performs quick scans, but for very fast sampling it will still be required to tweak driving circuits.
The schematics are available and we would love to hear from anyone and everyone regarding tweaking this device for use in LENR experiments.
Thanks, Nikita Alexandrov
Comments
Ti getters - SAES sells them - will not remove all the D2/H2. So you will need the higher resolution. Getters are destroyed by many gases and then wear out due to irreversible reactions. Water and O2 are the worse but also N2 reacts.
One approach for increased resolution is to change the operating parameters of the quads. See: ss.dsl.pipex.com/.../...
Having a static vacuum is best - i.e. pump the quad, close the vacuum, allow in known amounts of gas, run the analysis for several minutes to get good statistics. He4 will desorb from the surfaces of the vacuum chamber in the presence of D2/H2 so you will see it grow with time. This complicates the analysis.
I suggest an HP5970 MSD as they are very old (and thereby should be cheap), turbo pumped, and have schematics. EBay has one for $3200. You will need to reconfigure the electronics to get the mass resolution needed.
You will also need to contend with the He and T in the D2 (if it is a gas pressurization experiment). This ratio will change depending on gettering by the sample. Pd tends to getter T>D>H so impurities are concentrated. Removing the headspace makes one belive that T is produced rather than just concentrated from the bulk D2.
Ed, It's my understanding that if the helium is produced inside the metal it will be trapped there since noble gasses won't normally pass through metal.
I think four point resistance measurements would be a cheaper and faster upgrade.
I this this route should be explored. I don't have the expertise to recommend the hardware, but a quick search on alibaba shows a lot of companies that produce spectrum analyzera that would be willing to customize their products.
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