Progress in Understanding and Scaling Up the Lattice Energy Converter (LEC)

The Lattice Energy Converter (LEC) is an electrophysical gaseous electronic device (GED) where hydrogen occluded hydrogen- host-material (HHM) in fluidic contact with the gas results in the gas becoming spontaneously and continuously ionized without requiring the use of naturally radioactive materials. The physical process and nature of the ionization is currently unknown since any possible ionizing radiation is difficult to d etect. The ionized gas is an electrolyte in the sense that it contains both positive andnegativemobileions. Thus,whenthegaseouselectrolyteisinfluidiccontactwiththeelectrodesandanexternalpotential difference is applied between the electrodes, the device operates in a manner similar to an ionization chamber and the density of the gaseous ions can be estimated. However, when the ionized gas is in fluidic contact with separated electrodes that have different work functions, a LEC cell results. A LEC cell self-initiates and self-sustains the production of an ‘open-circuit’ contact potential difference (CPD) voltage between its electrodes that can be measured. Upon connecting a load impedance to the LEC’s electrodes, a current will flow t hus c harging a c apacitive i mpedance o r d elivering e lectrical p ower t o a r esistive i mpedance. Furthermore, the CPD phenomenon may be used with materials other than gases, such as auto-ionizing or self-ionizing liquids, gels, or even solid-state materials. When these non-gaseous materials have mobile ions and thus behave as an electrolyte, they can be used to implement another type of CPD direct energy conversion device. Both CPD gaseous and non-gaseous devices and combinations thereof form a new class of Electrophysical Direct Energy Converter (EDEC) devices.