WO1997020319A1

WO1997020319A1 - Solid fuel for cold nuclear fusion reactors

Info

Publication number: WO1997020319A1
Application number: PCT/IT1996/000225
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ubaldo Mastromatteo
Original assignee: Sgs-Thomson Microelectronics S.R.L.
Priority date: 1995-11-30
Filing date: 1996-11-26
Publication date: 1997-06-05
Also published as: AU7709696A

Abstract

This invention relates to a solid fuel for cold nuclear fusion reactors. A reactor suitable for such fuel comprises a quantity (MA) of an absorbing material capable of absorbing hydrogen, and of generating in consequence thermal energy, has the form of a cylindrical container and comprises a quantity (CO) of a fuel capable of releasing hydrogen put in touch with the inner walls of container (MA), and comprises a thermal element (ET) located in the inside and in touch with fuel (CO) to heat it. The fuel according to this invention is constituted by a solid composition including at least one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, or at least a compound obtained by combining to one another at least two of such elements, and including an effective quantity of hydrogen.

Description

Title: Solid fuel for cold nuclear fusion reactors

DESCRIPTION

Technical Field

This invention relates to a solid fuel for cold nuclear fusion reactors.

Cold nuclear fusion reactions have been noticed in several physical phenomena: the article by G.F. Cerofolini and A. Foglio-Para, "Can binuclear atoms solve the cold fusion puzzle?", FUSION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 23, pp. 98-102, 1993, illustrates shortly such phenomena and the associated chemical and nuclear reactions; interesting articles are also mentioned in the references.

The technical and patent bibliography on the matter is very rich, because of the practical interest of the subject.

Background Art

The first studies on cold nuclear fusion as such are due to M. Fleischmann and S.Pons, and have been made known in 1989; the phenomenon they have considered was the deuterium charging by electrodes made of palladium or titanium; during such phenomenon, an unexpected generation of thermal energy is noticed, which is attributed to nuclear fusion reactions between the deuterium atoms to form helium.

This invention applies to a nuclear reactor which exploits such phenomenon.

The cross-section of a possible structure of the essential part of such a reactor is illustrated in a schematic embodiment in the attached Fig. 1; it comprises a quantity of an absorbing material MA capable to absorb hydrogen and/or its isotopes and to generate in consequence thermal energy, having the shape, for instance, of a cylindrical container, and a quantity of a fuel CO suitable to release hydrogen and/or its isotopes, put in touch with the inner walls of container MA.

Known absorbing materials are for instance: palladium, titanium, platinum, nickel, niobium.

The container MA may be, for instance, immersed in a tank VA, suitable to contain e.g. water ACQ, and in which cold water can flow in through an inlet IN, and once heated by contact with container MA, it can flow out through outlets OUT.

Until now, in these kinds of reactors gaseous fuels have been used, for instance the same hydrogen, or liquid fuels, for instance solutions of electrolitic compounds of hydrogen in heavy water; the drawback of such fuels lies in the dispersion of the fusion material, i.e. hydrogen. In fact, the latter liberates and escapes easily in gaseous form near material MA just when the concentration in its inside reaches values useful for triggering the fusion. Besides, as the temperature of the absorbing material increases, liquids boil, while in gases the concentration of atoms reduces; this hinders fusion.

Disclosure of Invention

Object of this invention is to find a material utilizable as a fuel for cold nuclear fusion reactors of the kind illustrated, and such as to overcome the drawbacks mentioned.

This object is achieved by the material of claim 1; further advantageous aspects of this invention are set forth in the dependent claims.

Through the use as fuel of a solid composition including at least one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system or at least a compound obtained by combining to one another at least two of such elements, and including an effective quantity of hydrogen, there is no dispersion of the fusion material, as hydrogen cannot escape easily in the solid fueld, and aditionally the operation limit temperature is very high and corresponds to the fusion of the fuel and/or the absorbent material.

Brief Description of Drawings

The invention will be made clearer by the following description, considered also in combination with the attached drawing (Fig. 1), illustrating a cold nuclear fusion reactor suitable for the fuel according to this invention.

Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

The invention starts from the observation that in the field of integrated electronic circuits the fact is known that, during the fabrication of the same, some constituent materials, such as for instance boron nitride, aluminium boride, boron carbide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminium arsenide, gallium arsenide, enrich in hydrogen, causing degradations of the performances; such phenomenon is illustrated, for example, in S.Manzini's article, "Active doping instability in n+-p silicon surface avalanche diodes", Solid-State Electronics, vol. 38, n. 2, pp. 331-337, 1955, and in the articles mentioned in the references.

The possibility of usefully exploiting these unusefull and noxious properties was then considered.

A process step, typical of the techniques of fabrication of integrated electronic circuits, which leads to the formation of hydrogen-rich materials is the PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) ; details on this process step and also on all the techniques of fabrication of silicon-based integrated electronic circuits may be drawn from S.M. Sze's book, "VLSI Technology", McGraw-Hill, 1988; there are also fabrication techniques specific of germanium-based and gallium-arsenide-based integrated electronic circuits, well known in the art.

A typical chemical reaction between compounds of hydrogen using the PECVD technique is the following:

[1] AH_n + BH_m => A_χB_y + A-Hj + B-H_k + H₂.

Such oxidoreduction reaction [1] takes place from left to right if a relatively high temperature Tl is reached, for instance 400°C, and if two left reactants are caused to be in the plasma phase, instead of gas phase; at such "low" temperature Tl, the reaction [1] is neither complete nor stechiometric, and many bonds remain therefore between hydrogen and elements A and B, generally said bonds are single, i.e. "j" and "k" are equal to one; from reaction [1] a solid composition is obtained which has a high content of chemically bound hydrogen (and consequently of deuterium and tritium, if they are present in the initial materials) and of gaseous-state hydrogen which does not remain in high amount in the composition.

If afterwards the so obtained solid composition is heated (even after a possible cooling at room temperature) up to a temperature T2 higher than the first one, for instance 800°C, reaction [1] becomes rapidly complete and stechiometric, i. e. the following reaction takes place: _π

I

J

[2] A-Hj + B-H_k => A_χB_y + H₂;

with release of the hydroogen contained therein.

At temperatures comprised between Tl and T2, only the most weakly bound atoms are released.

The elements A and B usually utilizable for the fabrication of integrated electronic circuits are: carbon, phosphorus, boron, germanium, indium, gallium, aluminium, antimony, arsenic, tin, nitrogen, silicon.

While the materials more frequently realized by means of PECVD techniques are: boron nitride, aluminium boride, boron carbide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminium arsenide, gallium arsenide.

More generally, and for their very characteristics of easiness of chemical realization, are realized: nitrides, carbides, arsenides, phosphides, suicides, borides of chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system.

By extension, it seems therefore sensible to think that the oxidoreduction reactions [1] and [2] should take place in many of the compounds obtained by combining to one another at least two chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system.

Of course, temperatures Tl and T2 depend on elements A and B utilized; besides, it should be taken into account that there are no critical values that cause sudden variations in the reaction velocity for reactions [1] and [2] .

Hydrogen and its isotopes (deuterium and tritium) which are released during reaction [2] are absorbed by the absorbing material MA with good efficiency, as fuel CO is in touch with material MA, and as both of them are in the solid-state; this will spur the generation of thermal energy.

It is essential that hydrogen concentration in fuel, in terms of atoms per cubic centimeter, be sufficient to produce a valuable number of fusion phenomena by volume unit of the absorbing material.

In the case of silicon nitride as fuel and nickel as absorbing material, one can choose a concentration of lO^² for hydrogen in silicon nitride and cause the nitride mass to be more than 9 times greater than the nickel mass; in this way, the number of hydrogen atoms that can be released is about equal to the number of nickel atoms available; in fact, the density of nickel is equal to 9 x 10-22.

Actually, to the purposes of the use as fuel, the presence of the compound A_XB_V is not stricly indispensble; what matters is the presence of A-Hj + B- H_k; theoretically, only A-Hj or B-H_k could be utilized. Of course, it is not excluded that the solid composition could include other chemical elements or compounds which might not take part, either absolutely or to a relevant extent, in the chemical reaction between elements A, B, H.

To the purposes of the use as fuel, it is of the essential to see that reaction [1] does not complete in reaction [2], so as to trap much hydrogen in the resulting solid composition; of course, if some chemically unbound hydrogen should remain trapped in the composition, for instance in atomic and/or molecular and/or ionic form, this would be no problem, but an advantage, as it would be certainly released once the composition has reached a temperature exceeding temperature Tl .

With silicon nitride and using the mentioned PECVD techniques, it is not difficult to reach hydrogen concentrations equal to 10^ atoms per cubic centimeter.

It is therefore possible to utilize as fuel a solid composition including at least one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system or at least a chemical compound obtained by combining to one another at least two of said elements, and including an effective quantity of hydrogen; this is of course independent on the fabrication technique of the composition.

Usefully, for the utilization of solid fuel according to this invention, the reactor will comprise a thermal element ET capable of heating at the start fuel CO, for instance by touch, until it exceeds a given temperature, for instance 500°C, as shown in Fig. 1. Generally, once the fusion reaction has started, it is no longer necessary to heat fuel CO, as the very fusion reaction will provide to heating fuel CO.

Claims

1. A material with hydrogen-releasing properties, constituted by a solid composition including at least one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system or at least a coumpound obtained by combining to one another at least two of said elements, and including an effective quantity of hydrogen.

2. The material according to claim 1, in which at least part of the hydrogen of said quantity is chemically bound to at least one of said elements.

3. The material according to claim 1, in which at least part of the hydrogen of said quantity is in atomic and/or molecular and/or ionic form.

4. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least a compound chosen among boron nitride, aluminium boride, boron carbide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminium arsenide, gallium arsenide, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said at least one compound.

5. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least a nitride of one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said nitride.

6. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least a carbide of one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said carbide.

7. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least an arsenide of one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said arsenide.

8. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least a phosphide of one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said phosphide.

9. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least a silicide of one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said silicide.

10. The material according to claim 1, in which said solid composition includes at least a boride of one of the chemical elements belonging to the groups III, IV, V of the periodic system, and includes an effective quantity of hydrogen chemically bound, at least in part, to the components of said boride.

11. Use as solid fuel for cold nuclear fusion reactors of a material according to any of the preceeding claims.