[NewCandle] Entish aluminum holiday

[Nick Reiter]

Hi Keith,

By Jove, yes, I do see your point (as if we hadn't
been dancing on top of it now for some weeks!)

Extended hydrolysis of close rolled Al foil would
certainly be an easy enough arrangement in concept, to
keep running "in the backround".  It resonates to the
principles of alchemy if nothing else!  And that may
not be a bad thing obviously...

Now that brings to mind something else that might be
worth my time checking.  Most of these various salt
hydrolysis runs in the past 6 months or so end up with
me waiting until the bubbling is mostly done, then
removal of the spent crusty Al rolls and cleaning of
the buckets and disposal of the brine.  However, since
I usually just take out one foil roll, slice it open
for samples, and reserve that section, I often leave
the rest to stew in their juices on the back porch
until the water evaporates or I need the plastic
bucket.  I've never pulled another Al foil sample 3
months after I took the initial roll for EDS...
because I presumed that the rest was just sitting
there idle, after the reaction was spent.  But maybe
not.

The most recent bucket, with the KCl and a bit of
D20... perhaps I ought to cover it to prevent
evaporation and just let it sit in the corner of the
kitchen til March, and pull another roll at that time
for EDS...

We are such hasty little orcs.

Wickedly good notions though - thanks very much!

n


> You know Nick, it strikes me that perhaps you've got
> a good
> idea but are going at it in the opposite direction.
> That is
> to say, have you tried doing one of these Al
> corrosion experiments
> as _slowly_ as possible. Get the reaction to play
> out over
> the course of several months, rather than days. Not
> nearly
> as exciting to a couple of unrepentant pyros, but
> perhaps
> more likely to produce some anomalous elemental
> xmutation.
> 
> K. 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: newcandle-bounces at ipdiscover.com
> [mailto:newcandle-bounces at ipdiscover.com]On Behalf
> Of Nick Reiter
> Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 7:12 AM
> To: New energy for the new world.
> Subject: Re: [NewCandle] aluminum holiday
> 
> 
> Hi Keith,
> 
> Sorry to drop the ball on this one for a week or so
> -
> much ado at the lab, and not much opportunity to
> focus
> on matters alchemical.
> 
> A screening experiment sounds decent.  I'll measure
> out how much AgNO3 I have in the packet, and see
> what
> would be prudent for a base reaction screening run. 
> I
> could then run a second data point, with some
> arbitrary molar amount of AlNO3 (I'm thinking
> .01M)added to reduce the reaction rate.  And do a
> baseline EDS on the aluminum surface as well.
> 
> The best balance I have is a 1mg pan balance, in
> good
> condition and true reading.  In my own experiments,
> I
> often use a .5mg minimum resolution (half unit). 
> I'm
> far less familiar with conductivity testing for
> concentration, so I'll chew on that one.
> 
> All said, though, I should be able to get the
> screening work organized this next week.
> 
> In other news, I've been looking now with EDS at the
> eroded foil remains from the KCl + D2O aluminum foil
> roll hydrolysis (the latest "Pixie" bucket to have
> been run).  This is the one where I took a
> preliminary
> look at whitish creeping salts a week or so ago, as
> the hydrolysis was just beginning to catalyze.
> 
> I think I reported on how the small amount of D2O
> added once again attenuated or slowed the "sequence"
> leading up to bubbling hydrolysis.  Once things
> kicked
> in, though, it was vigorous, and in the end, about 3
> liters of water was consumed.
> 
> This run had some curiosities.  Using a
> candle-lighter, I could ignite bubble sheets on the
> water surface, and see the pale violet hue of K.  As
> the bubbling passed its peak and began to drop off,
> I
> noticed that the flame front became clearer and even
> sounded less explosively "pop-ey"
> 
> EDS of the foil surfaces didn't turn up anything
> exotic - being cautious about peak overlays and
> echoes.  The oxides formed were curious though in
> their form - a bi-modal oxide crust on the Al
> surfaces
> - with a fused looking smooth surface underneath a
> layer of dogtooth blades... very un-alumina like;
> not
> the usual hex columnar growth.
> 
> Another mystery is that of the appearance of sodium
> in
> an amount and distribution that seems WAY out of
> line
> (>1%) with the max amount of Na indicated in the
> starting KCl (said to be <.05%)
> 
> Some possibly surprising appearances of Si and Fe
> again in borderline amounts.
> 
> The appearance of too-much sodium is fodder for my
> thought, though.  Have not yet figured out an "a-ha"
> to explain that one.  Is there any LENR lore
> mentioning conversion of K into Na?
> 
> All the best,
> 
> nr
> 
> 
> 
> > Very little hard information was available
> regarding
> > those Al/Ag xmutation
> > experiments. That said, the basic system is very
> > robust and was/is
> > used commercially to extract Ag from nitric acid
> > leached ore solutions.
> > This is essentially a displacement reaction: the
> Al
> > is dissolved and
> > goes into solution forming a more basic Al
> nitrate,
> > and the Ag is
> > plated out forming the characteristic "christmas
> > tree" dendritic
> > structure. The more Ag in solution, the faster
> will
> > be the displacement
> > reaction. The aluminum nitrate acts to reduce the
> > rate of displacement,
> > so you can conceivably have a fairly rich
> > concentration of Ag
> > and still have the slow displacement necessary to
> > (hopefully)
> > see the effect.
> > 
> > I was able to find some more info from my old
> notes
> > when I went
> > looking for the work I did on that spark gap
> > oscillator. Using
> > 1/4 gram of silver nitrate in 10 ml of water, I
> > would see
> > a substantial reaction for about a week. This was
> > done in a
> > cold basement during winter, so the temps were
> quite
> > low
> > ( probably 50-60 degrees F ). You should try that
> > first,
> > and look at the resulting dendrites and substrate
> > under
> > the microscope to get a feel for what a "normal"
> 
=== message truncated ===


The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er Her gates. 
Adorned in the masters' loving art, She lies;
She rests at last beneath the starry skies.