Electrochemically-enhanced nuclear fusion of deuterium
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The ultimate goal of nuclear fusion research is to achieve a reaction that generates more energy than it consumes. Fuels such as deuterium need to be confined to increase the collision probability of particles. We therefore set out to investigate whether electrochemically loading a metal lattice with deuterium fuel could increase the probability of nuclear fusion events. Here, we report a benchtop fusion reactor that enabled us to bombard a palladium metal target with deuterium ions. These deuterium ions undergo deuterium-deuterium (D-D) fusion reactions within the palladium metal. We showed that the in situ electrochemical loading of deuterium into the palladium target resulted in a 15(2)% increase in D-D fusion rates. This experiment shows how electrochemical reactions at the eV energy scale can impact nuclear reactions at the MeV energy scale.
