Cold Fusion    12/06/03

I'll update this page on an irregular basis.

First, I'll summarize by saying that the so-called cold fusion effect is all bunk. Everything about the processes involving the palladium/deuterium cell can be explained by chemical reactions. The observations regarding explosions (including one that took the life of a researcher), and excess heat are from the spontaneous out-gassing of D2 from the Pd electrode when the applied electrochemical potentials were allowed to come to open circuit conditions. Heat from this spontaneous out-gassing along with the vigorous evolution of D2 and the catalytic Pd surface leads to the recombination of D2 with O2 giving D2O producing the explosions. Think of the Hindenberg disaster taken to the bench-level.

I was a bit player in this episode. While a post-doc in Chuck Martin's laboratory at Texas A&M in the spring of 1989, I became involved in the attempts at reproduction of the Pons-Fleischmann (cold fusion) effect. Chuck was skiing buddies with Stanley Pons, and thus we thought that a direct-line to the discoverers of this process. I was the post-doc in charge of the Martin effort. Much of the work involved the calorimetry of electrochemical cells which is a difficult problem. Most of that work was done by colleagues at various institutes and centers on the Texas A&M campus. I also had the help of a very able grad student, Del Lawson. Much of the story of cold fusion at the personal level including those of Pons, Fleischmann, Martin, and many others including Del and myself is told in the book Bad Science by Gary Taubes. A link to that book:

Amazon.com    One of the amateur reviewers appears to be a committed cold fusionist.

Pathological Science. Cold Fusion is a shining example (no pun intended).

A 1989 NY Times story on cold fusion.

More to come....