Song Han admired the battery he had personally made in his hand. Its appearance and overall design direction were full of the simple beauty of the first-principle.
However...
Song Han weighed the cold fusion battery in his hand, which had a total mass of about ten kilograms. He somewhat couldn't believe whether it could really emit majestic energy as calculated in theory.
"On March 23, 1989, the University of Utah in Country C held a press conference, claiming that Dr. Pons and Dr. Martin observed the nuclear fusion of two deuterium atoms at room temperature in an electrochemical experiment.
They made a simple electrolytic cell. The heavy water in the electrolytic cell contained the required deuterium atoms, and the cathode of the electrolytic cell was made of palladium. Their hypothesis was that the movement of the current from the anode to the cathode would force the deuterium nuclei to move from the heavy water into the lattice of palladium, where fusion would occur.
The occurrence of this kind of fusion does not require additional high temperature to promote the chaotic movement of electrons, which is an ideal method for an ideal cold fusion battery."
Song Han looked at the battery in his hand in surprise and said,
"You mean someone made a cold fusion battery in 1989?"
"No, they didn't."
The system explained,
"Later, after many experiments by numerous teams, they all failed to replicate the fusion process, so this achievement was denied."
Hearing this, Song Han asked in surprise,
"Since it was denied, why did you still ask me to make it?"
The system explained,
"The reason it was denied was that when the deuterium atoms moved into the face-centered cubic lattice of the palladium atoms, the deuterium atoms did not undergo fusion with the pre-reserved tritium atoms in the face-centered cubic lattice of the palladium atoms. In the replication by later scientific research teams, this phenomenon was not found either.
It's like the movement and intersection of the solar system and the Alpha Centauri system. Their intersection did not result in a collision and the formation of a new galaxy.
Instead, due to the gravitational repulsion between the two stars, they just each other. And this gravitational force is the electrostatic repulsion between atoms.
Both deuterium and tritium atoms have positively charged atomic nuclei. Due to the electrostatic repulsion, it is very difficult for them to undergo spontaneous fusion, and an additional high-temperature and high-pressure environment is required."
After going around in a circle, Song Han looked at the system's explanation and was a bit confused.
"So we also need to apply additional high temperature and pressure to counteract the electrostatic repulsion between the deuterium and tritium atoms in the target lattice?
Isn't this going back to the starting point?
It's precisely because we can't solve the problems of high temperature and high pressure in small-scale thermonuclear fusion reactors due to current energy and material issues, and the huge systematic project required for building large-scale thermonuclear fusion reactors will have an impact on modern society that we started with small-scale cold fusion batteries.
Since it can't be completed, why are we still doing it?"
"According to the future technological context, the target gold battery is a common and safest small-scale nuclear battery in the future.
The two deuterium-tritium fusion reactions observed by Dr. Pons and Dr. Martin in 1989 also actually occurred.
The palladium element lattice formed by 12 adjacent atoms has a natural absorbency for gases.
When the tritium elements accommodated between the lattices are dense enough, the movement of the current from the anode to the cathode will force the deuterium atoms to move into the lattice of palladium and undergo coupling collisions with the tritium atoms.
As long as the number of repeated experiments is sufficient, the electrons of the deuterium atoms may also accidentally counteract the electrostatic repulsion under the push of the charge and undergo fusion with the tritium atoms."
Song Han looked at the oversized cylindrical battery in his hand. If it weren't for the issue of volume, it was extremely similar in both appearance and internal structure to the No. 5 battery used in daily life. The only difference was the change in the materials of the two poles.
"Then how can we successfully ignite it?"
A household battery generates current through a simple chemical reaction of the internal materials. For a nuclear fusion battery, the first step to make it generate current is to make the deuterium and tritium elements inside undergo fusion, and this step is also the most difficult part that puzzles everyone in the world.
"Coupling fusion at room temperature requires a sufficient number of repetitions and corresponding luck. By comparison, it's like you need to hit the bullseye the size of a needle's eye ten thousand kilometers away with one shot.
The two accidental successful hits by Dr. Pons and Dr. Martin in 1989 exhausted all of humanity's luck accumulated over decades, so this research was buried back in the pile of history by humans."
The system's words made the corners of Song Han's mouth twitch. He didn't think he had the luck to make the deuterium atoms hit the target.
The system comforted him,
"With the double breakthroughs in materials and technology, we can now use other means to increase the hit rate."
When the engineering diagram unfolded in front of Song Han's eyes, he suddenly understood.
It was an outer poloidal field coil directionally wound with double-layer graphene wires with a corner of 1.1 degrees. They were placed in a glass pipeline filled with liquid nitrogen.
The powerful magnetic field generated when they passed current would further constrain the movement direction of the plasma inside the palladium-gold battery.
At this time, as long as you simply and crudely charge the battery, the anode and cathode of the target gold battery will naturally further increase the internal temperature of the battery on the basis of electrolytic heating.
As long as you wait patiently.
The current carrying deuterium atoms constrained by the magnetic field will rush into the cathode of the target gold in a controlled direction, where they will undergo fusion with the tritium elements in the palladium element lattice.
The special ceramic protective layer inside the battery can resist a high temperature of millions of degrees. The vacuum heat insulation plate in the middle layer can effectively prevent the spread of heat. Coupled with the aerogel heat insulation layer and the boron-containing polyethylene that shields the neutrons flying out during fusion, and finally wrapped with a graphene-lead-tungsten alloy to shield the radiation.
The real fusion material in the entire battery is only ten grams, and 99% of the other mass is the outer protective layer.
And it is precisely these ten grams of fusion materials that, once they are successfully ignited, will be able to release the heat equivalent to one thousand kilograms of standard coal.
Song Han stared wide-eyed at the target gold battery the size of an arm placed in the ignition device and began to wait patiently.
One hour, two hours...
Just as Song Han closed his eyes during the waiting process, the system controlled his body to stand up again.
"Silly waste of time. It's better to have more information exchanges with Jian'an Internet during this time.
With the control accuracy of the existing technology, who knows when they will really be successfully ignited."
Saying this, the system put on the cowboy hat beside it and immersed itself in the large-scale information exchange with Jian'an Internet.
I don't know how long it had passed. When Song Han was awakened by the vibration prompt from Jian'an through the sunglasses on his face, Song Han quickly ran to the experimental table and looked at the target gold battery that had successfully ignited and started spontaneous fusion.
"Measured temperature: 1.2 million degrees.
Energy output power: 50 kilowatt-hours.
It is expected that the fusion materials will be exhausted after 60 hours. Please replace them in a timely manner."
Song Han held the battery he had made with his own hands, and a sense of accomplishment welled up in his heart.
Compared with a thermonuclear fusion reactor that requires a temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees to generate a fusion reaction, this target gold battery that can generate a fusion effect at a temperature of only 1.2 million degrees can indeed be called cold nuclear fusion.
However, before Song Han could be happy for long, a wave of dizziness kept hitting him.
"It's strange. Why do I feel that my head is a bit hot?"
He instinctively touched his head, and looking at the brainwave external chain cowboy hat in his hand, Song Han angrily said,
"System, you stole my brain again while I was asleep!"