Limits on electromagnetic and particle emission from palladium-D2O electrolytic cells

Abstract

We have carried out a series of experiments to test the recently claimed observations of cold fusion. In a first experiment, we used an electrochemical cell with a Pd wire cathode. Neutrons were detected by the1H(n,γ) photons from surrounding water and paraffin. In a second experiment, two vacuum-cast Pd disks were the cathodes in “twin” cells, one with H2O, and the other with D2O. The two cells were shuttled every 24 hours between similar detector setups, equipped with neutron, γ- and x-ray detectors. A third experiment was designed to measure production of charged particles, using an Si surface barrier detector viewing the back of a 76-μm thick Pd foil cathode. No statistically-significant evidence of nuclear fusion has been obtained in any of these experiments, either in steady-state operation or in transient response to a variety of perturbations. Upper bounds on the rate of various postulated fusion processes were set including <2×10−23 neutrons (dd pair)−1 s−1 for the d(d,n)3He reaction and <6×10−25 protons (dd pair)−1 s−1 for the d(d,p)3H reaction (2σ level). Chemical analysis of our electrolytes revealed no anomalous increase in3H concentrations. (PACS numbers: 82.45.+z,29.30.-h,29.70.-e,25.45.-z).