In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.Subject: Re: Catalyzed Fusions
Date: Feb 03, 10:44 pm
Poster: AnonymousCowardOn Feb 03, 10:44 pm, AnonymousCoward wrote:
>I've read about the possibility that fusion in very hot stars is catalyzed by isotopes of carbon and neon. I do not have a reference for the phenom handy. Does anyone know if there has been any experimentation along these lines in fusors?
>
>-p
Carbon catalysed fusion occurs in stars that are more than about 50% larger than the sun. I don't know about the fusor side of this, but I do know that the CNO fusion cycle only dominates over normal protonic hydrogen fusion at temperatures in excess of about 1e+8 kelvin. So it's more than 10 times as difficult to initiate than D/D or D/T fusion reactions. The other problem with carbon catalysed fusion is that two steps in the whole cycle involve positron emission. This process occurs by the weak nuclear force and are therefore fairly slow.