Fusion Message Board

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: p + B11 reaction
Date: Feb 23, 1:53 am
Poster:

On Feb 23, 1:53 am, wrote:

[snip]
>Another challenge is getting the boron into the system. I was thinking initially of using diborane as a source of both boron and hydrogen, but the more I read about this stuff, the less willing I am to have it as a house guest. Diborane is poisonous, pyrophoric, and apparently unstable as well. In the pure form, diborane is shipped in cylinders in a barrel of dry ice. Even the diluted mixtures have a shelf life. As an interesting aside, some researchers use diborane to plate the inside of their reaction chambers with boron, to reduce the amount of high-Z impurities that get introduced into the plasma by wall reactions.

How about pentaborane?. From memory, this compound is a lot freindlier

>
>Other possibilities for introducing boron are lithium borohydride (keep it away from air and moisture - extremely reactive solid), or using a hydrogen fill and placing a boron target in the fusion chamber. The boron would be vaporized with a pulsed laser (another use for that e-bay toy...).

Can you get away without having to vaporize the boron target?. Charge it a large -ve voltage relatve to the grid and let the hydrogen protons do that work for you????.

IJV