JPS5894741A - Negative ion producing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce a negative ion of hydrogen effectively with a simple process, by forming spaces at the high pressure side and the low pressure side either with a partition diaphragm permeating a H2 gas inside a case, while feeding a surface in space at the low pressure side of the diaphragm with an electron. CONSTITUTION:A tube 2 made of Pd, etc., is installed in a case 1 and a hydrogen gas source is interconnected to one end of the Pd tube 2 while the other end is closed up. With this, hydrogen gas is charged to the inner part of the Pd tube 2, forming space at the high pressure side and also forming space at the low pressure side and also forming space at the low pressure side at the outside. Then, a filament 3 is installed, as an electron discharge source, in close vicinity to the outside of the Pd tube 2 and a thermoelectron from the filament 3 is fed to the outer surface of the Pd tube 2 or to its vicinity while the Pd tube 2 is heated. If a hydrogen1 gas H2 is fed to the inner part of the Pd tube 2, the hydrogen gas H2 permeates the wall of the tube 2 by means of diffusion, so that it is discharged in a state of corpuscles from the outer surface at the low pressure side of the tube 2 or as molecules in a state of being excited. And, the thermoelectron is fed from the filament 3 and a negative ion of hydrogen is thus produced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to hydrogen deuterium or tritium (hereinafter simply "
"Hydrogen". ) relates to a method for generating negative ions.

Generally, accelerated neutral hydrogen is supplied into the plasma in order to heat the plasma for nuclear fusion, but in order to do this, the hydrogen must first be ionized to become positive or negative ions. It is necessary to accelerate and then neutralize.

By the way, in the case of positive hydrogen ions, when the energy becomes high, the efficiency of neutralization decreases, so it is preferable to use negative hydrogen ions in order to obtain a larger acceleration energy.

From this point of view, various means for generating negative hydrogen ions have been proposed. In other words, there is a method in which negative hydrogen ions are generated by discharging hydrogen to create positive ions, which are then accelerated and passed through cesium (Cs) vapor, and a method in which positive hydrogen ions or neutral hydrogen are coated with cesium. Proposed methods include a method in which negative hydrogen ions are generated by applying it to a metal surface, and a method in which negative hydrogen ions are generated by discharging in a mixture of hydrogen and cesium.

However, in any case, such conventional means have the problem that the negative hydrogen ion generation process is complicated, and the hydrogen discharge location and the hydrogen negative ion generation hot water facility are in communication. Therefore, there is a problem in that both conditions are intertwined and the gas efficiency is extremely poor.

The present invention aims to solve these problems.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for generating negative ions of hydrogen using a simple process and extremely high gas efficiency.

Next, the principle of the hydrogen negative ion generation method of the present invention will be explained using FIG.

Conventionally, palladium (Ps), vanadium (V), iron (
It is known that metals such as Fe) or niobium (Nb), and alloys of palladium and gold or palladium and silver, occlude or adsorb hydrogen gas. When the space is partitioned into two by this partition wall A and a difference in gas pressure is applied to these two spaces, the hydrogen gas H2 is reduced to the high pressure side space 1 (
It spreads from S to the low-pressure side space LS and spreads through the partition wall A.

Note that it is said that the hydrogen gas in this partition A is dissociated into atoms rather than gas molecules.

As a result of the hydrogen gas diffusing in the partition wall A in this way, this hydrogen gas is released from the surface of the partition wall A in the low pressure side space LS, but depending on the surface potential of the partition wall A, Hydrogen leaves the surface of the partition wall either as an atomic state (denoted by the symbol H) or as molecules in an excited state (denoted by the symbol H2). Note that the higher the temperature of the partition wall A, the greater the amount of hydrogen that permeates through the partition wall A.

Of the hydrogen released in this way, H in the atomic state has an electron affinity of 0.75 eV, so by supplying electrons e to it, it is easy to form negative ions H.
Also, negative ions H- can be easily generated by colliding electrons e with molecules of the released hydrogen which exist as excited state molecules/molecules H''2. .

That is, by supplying electrons e to the hydrogen gas H = H: released into the low-pressure side space LS at or near the surface of the partition wall A in the low-pressure side space LS, negative ions H- can be easily generated. It is understood that there is no need to let it go.

For this reason, the method of the present invention involves filling one of two spaces partitioned by a partition wall made of a metal (including alloy) through which hydrogen gas can permeate with the above gas to form a high-pressure side space. , a lower pressure side space is formed by maintaining a lower gas pressure on the other side, and the gas diffused through the partition wall from the high pressure side space and released into the low pressure side space is exposed to the gas pressure of the partition wall. It is characterized in that negative ions of the gas are generated by supplying electrons at or near the surface of the low-pressure side space.

Below, the negative ion generation method as an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. Figure #2 is a partially cutaway top view of an apparatus for confirming the effect of this method, and Figure 3 is FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a cross-sectional state along line III-III in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an electric circuit diagram of the above device, and FIG.
．． 6 and #7 (a) and (b) are graphs for explaining the operation of this method.

As shown in Fig. 2, the device for proving the principle of this method is equipped with a case 1 that has an exhaust port 1a that communicates with an exhaust pump and can appropriately maintain a low pressure inside the case 1. , a palladium tube 2 is provided. The palladium tube 2 has one end communicated with a hydrogen gas source and the other end closed, thereby forming a high-pressure side space H3 filled with hydrogen gas inside the palladium tube 2. At the same time, on the outside of the palladium tube 2,
A low-pressure side space LS having a gas pressure lower than this is formed.

(See Figure $2.3) Also, near the outside of the palladium tube 2, two filaments (3.3) are provided as electron emission sources, and thermionic electrons from these filaments (3) are transferred to the palladium tube. In addition to being able to supply the palladium to the outer surface of the tube 2 or its vicinity, the palladium tube 2 can also be heated.

When the hydrogen gas H2 is thereby supplied into the palladium tube 2, the hydrogen gas H2 is supplied into the palladium tube 2.
2 passes through the palladium tube wall by diffusion and is emitted from the low-pressure outer surface of the palladium tube 2 in an atomic state or as molecules in an excited state. Ions should be generated.

In order to confirm this phenomenon, a detector consisting of a guard ring 4 and a collector 5 is provided.

Further, the palladium tube 2 and the filament 3 are arranged in almost the same plane, and a mesh 7 node 6 is provided between the palladium tube 2 and the filament 3 and the guard ring 4 and the collector 5. It is being

Incidentally, the electrical connection state of these members 2 to 6 is shown in FIG. 4.

As a result, an electric field is formed between the mesh 7 node 6 and the cathode portion of the palladium tube 2 or filament 3, and negative ions can be accelerated and emitted. This accelerates the extraction of negative ions, and furthermore, it is unclear whether the information detected by the detector is due to electrons or negative hydrogen ions.

Therefore, in this device, the above-mentioned disadvantages are prevented by applying a magnetic field with a magnetic flux density B in the directions shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

In other words, the second magnetic field rotates the electrons with a much smaller radius than the hydrogen, preventing them from being emitted toward the detector. FIG. 5 confirms this fact. That is, in FIG. 5, when a magnetic field is applied (B=, 290.f
(see characteristic curves c and d), the collector 5
Since the current Ic flowing through is small, it can be seen that electrons are not emitted to the detector side, in other words, electrons and negative hydrogen ions are separated.

In addition, in this FIG. 5, the horizontal axis is the collector voltage Vc.

Moreover, if the amount of hydrogen gas permeating through the palladium tube 2 is increased, the amount of negative hydrogen ions released should increase, and this was confirmed in FIG. 6. That is, in FIG. 6, as the hydrogen gas pressure inside the palladium tube 2 is increased and the amount of hydrogen gas permeating is increased, the collector current I
It can be seen that as c increases, more negative hydrogen ions are released.

In addition, the pressure PH2 in FIG. 6 is the pressure at which the hydrogen generated as negative ions collides with the inner wall of the case 1 and comes out of the exhaust port 1a as hydrogen gas H2 again. It is related to the amount of permeation.

Further, when the relationship between the collector current (flowing H'') and the voltage Va or pressure P was determined from the above-mentioned experiment, the results were as shown in FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b).

In this way, the principle of the method and its effectiveness were confirmed by the above device.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the filament 3 was used as the electron emitter, but as shown in FIG. As an emitter, a p-n junction 7 with an n-type semiconductor on the side of the partition wall A is provided, and a surface with negative electron affinity generated by passing a forward bias current is used to emit electrons e and e from this surface. By generating hydrogen in an atomic state (in this example, it is shown as deuterium; the same applies hereinafter in Fig. 8) and hydrogen molecules in an excited state, negative hydrogen ions D- are generated. It ends with this. Further, reference numeral 8 in FIG. 8 indicates a surface layer made of vanadium and barium or cesium.

As described in detail above, the negative ion generation method of the present invention has the advantage of being able to generate negative hydrogen ions with a simple process and high gas efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the principle of the negative ion generation method of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 8 are schematic diagrams for explaining the negative ion generation method as an embodiment of the present invention. The figure is a partially cutaway top view of an apparatus for confirming the effect of this method, Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing a cross-sectional state along line III-111 in Figure 2, and Figure 4 is the above-mentioned The electric circuit diagram of the device, FIGS. 5 and 6, and FIGS. 7(a) and (b) are all graphs for explaining the action of the present method, and
The figure is a schematic diagram showing another example of the electron emitter. 1...Case, Ia...Exhaust port, 2...Palladium tube,
3...Filament, 4...Guard ring, 5...Collector, 6...Mensure/-de, 7...p-n junction, 8...Surface layer, A...Partition, H3...High pressure ml empty story,
LS: Low pressure side space. Agent Patent Attorney Yoshihiko Iinuma Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4 pd

Claims (1)

[Claims] One of two spaces partitioned by a partition wall made of a metal that can permeate hydrogen 1 deuterium or tritium gas is filled with the above gas to form a high pressure side space, and the other side is filled with a lower pressure gas. By maintaining the pressure, a low-pressure side space is formed, and the gas diffused through the partition wall from the high-pressure side space and released to the low-pressure side space is exposed to the surface of the partition wall in the low-pressure side space or its vicinity. A negative ion generation method, characterized in that negative ions of the gas are generated by supplying electrons.