Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate claims of excess heat generation during water electrolysis. Several cells were constructed and operated similarly to low-current-density cells described in the literature. All produced excess heat as defined and calculated in the literature reports, but the production of excess heat could be readily terminated by the introduction of various barriers to the migration of hydrogen and oxygen. Remarkably, published reports of excess heat fail to disprove the presence of decreased faradaic efficiency (e.g., current that oxidizes H{sub 2} or reduces O{sub 2}) or systematic calorimetric errors. Illustrative examples of both problems are given. Thus, failure to rule out prosaic explanations probably invalidates all the currently available reports of excess heat in both light water-Ni/Pt and heavy water-Pd/Pt cells. There is no compelling evidence that excess heat is of a nuclear origin in such electrolytic cells. 20 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.
Published Version
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