Abstract
It has been proposed that differences in the adsorption, desorption, dissociation, and recombination rates of chemical species between surfaces can give rise to steady‐state pressure and temperature gradients within a single blackbody cavity under low‐pressure conditions [1‐5]. Such gradients would implicitly violate the second law of thermodynamics. This paper reports on laboratory tests of this proposal. Low‐pressure molecular hydrogen (P≤30Torr) was found to dissociate and desorb preferentially on rhenium compared with tungsten at elevated temperatures (T≤2100K). Blackbody cavities are being constructed from these metals, and their interior surface temperatures monitored. Steady‐state temperature gradients, due to differential gas‐surface reactions, would signal second law breakdown.
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