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Attempted Wire Repair

Written by Ryan Hunt on .

This has been a day of interesting mini experiments.

First was trying to learn about the air currents around the cell.  We used a neutral buoyancy smoke generator to examine how much air was moving past the cell and in what directions.  There was no "AHA!" moment, but we generally have a better picture. 

Next, right about noon, there was a decline in P_xs to the lowest levels we'd seen it, immediately followed by a permanent rise to higher level that it had been in days.    The decline preceding it got to -6 watts.  Paul joked that if it got any lower, maybe we could invent a new refrigerator, instead.  

Then the power rose and we were excited instead of joking.  We can not adequately explain why either event happened, but here are a few of the things that happened along with it.  The Ambient started to rise when Malachi and I went in there to test the airflow around the cell.  We were working around the cell and standing at the computer.  It is possible we disturbed the cell air flow or the room temperature controls.  Malachi and I left the lab at 12:30 and went to lunch.  The rise after 13:00 can be attributed to a sunny warm day heating the main building that supplies warm air to the lab.  The main building is designed for a certain amount of solar capture.

So the Ambient rose 0. 5 C.  Why did all the cell temps rise significantly more than that?

The impedance did something funny, too.  Any suggestions what that dip means?

And the pressure looked interesting, too, but I cannot exactly correlate it to anything.

 

And that kept us happily entertained for hours till the next interesting thing came along.  We learned that our wire may be damaged.  Acting on a tip from Celani, we just attempted a wire repair without removing it from the test cell.  We vacuumed out the hydrogen, opened it to the atmosphere.  Then we heated the wire to a red glow for 10 seconds and then killed the power and let it cool.  

After re heating it, most of the wires turned black again.  Parts that did not glow as hot did not turn black, again.  I do not know if that is any problem, but I do not think we are any worse off than before. 
Notice the copper colored parts on the left wrap and near the mica.  The mica kept the wire from getting as hot where they were in contact.
 
The resistivity of the wire went back up to just over Ro (18.4 ohms).  So then we started another loading run in 3.5 bar H2 at 160 C heated by the nichrome.  Overnight it will step up a couple time to see if we can load higher at higher temps.
 
The graph below shows the rising impedance during the heating (little spikes at the left) and the beginning of the re-loading step.

 

We will insert a video as soon as we can get it uploaded.

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0 #6 Arnold Isenberg 2012-11-21 22:07
When you see the wire resistance drop from the oxidized state, by the introduction of H2, at a temperature above 100 deg. C (do not call it Celsius anymore, but centigrade) it is just due to the chemical reduction of (black) CuO to (red) Cu2O or even Cu. Both, Cu2O and Cu have a lower resistance than CuO. This means that you have a lower resistance "coating" of the original wire, electrically parallel to the wire core, which reduces the resistance of the (composite) wire, it does not necessarily mean that you are "loading" the wire with H from H2.
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0 #5 Ecco 2012-11-20 13:35
I was thinking... IF the camera flash will turn out to actually have this triggering effect, then there's the chance that the real reason for this are UV and sub-UV emissions (< 400 nm wavelength). A high current density Xenon flash-bulb (especially made for UV emission) or some sort of spark triggering system (sparks can have strong UV emission at around 400 nm wavelength) inside the glass tube might be something to consider fitting.

By the way, while searching on this subject I found out certain types of 'technical' glass such as borosilicate can filter out sub UV emissions. Your reactor uses quartz. The European one will use borosilicate, though.

Again, IF it turns out this is the reason for yesterday's p_xs power increase, it's been found purely by chance.
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0 #4 Michael Kussmann 2012-11-20 08:16
Metal-oxides and light.... that reminds me of photo-cathodes (the type in the electron tube type of photo-elements) . Photo flash: several Joules in milliseconds, that is in the KW range.
This could be a good stimulus, and easy to test.
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+1 #3 Ged 2012-11-20 04:29
@Ecco,

That is a really interesting idea. Since we know that light can stimulate electron mobility in a metal, which has consequences for the lattice. Hm. Other groups have claimed electromagnetic stimulation to be important. I think it would be fun, and easy to try!

Brings up another question: is it the intensity of the camera flash, or could even the fluorescent lights of the room affect the reactor; such as turning on the lights to enter the room, if they aren't always on.

Some of the best science discoveries came from silly seeming observations. And when dealing with the unknown, nothing should be ruled out till tested, I feel ;)
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+2 #2 Ecco 2012-11-20 03:21
Did the power rise occur just after you took photos? Did you use the integrated camera flash for them? What if, for some exotic reason, that might have triggered excess power for a while? It's worth a try.

I'm actually serious!

EDIT: after looking at EXIF data for the two full-size photos you posted in the previous blogpost, it does appear that the camera flash fired for both of them. I don't know if you took more photos than those two, but I think it is possible that the flash might have actually had some influence on the reactor, especially if you used it multiple times.
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+1 #1 Ged 2012-11-20 03:14
Looks like it's reoxidized quite well! Whew. Glad it seems, at least from appearances, that the fix was that easy; the resistance bump also suggests the oxidation worked right.

Wonder how it got flaked originally. Burn off from the higher power? Something coating the wire? Such curiosities. Can't wait to see how it'll perform after this "fix".

Great work guys! Learning a great deal.
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