Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum diode array nanotech abundant clean energy

I have invented, patented1, and tested2 a chip containing very many very small diodes that absorbs uniform ambient heat and releases D.C. Electrical power. This is a superior energy source that is very inexpensive and will power small appliances out of the box without a need for power wiring anywhere in the world.

This has great potential to improve the prosperity of mankind.

The chip will quickly become an open source commodity. I want the applications to be open to the commons too. It is also a hard science tool for science fiction.

Michael Huff3 at the Stanford MEM network, a network of nanotechnology developers, has given me a quote that $50,000 would pay for developing this chip. He could receive grant funding directly to improve the accountability as I am an unaffiliated inventor that can not personally produce the chip .

1 U.S. Patent 3,890,161, DIODE ARRAY. As a 1975 patent, it may be available in image form only, not yet in electronically searchable text form. The original materials specified in the patent have been superseded by C60 carbon buckyballs as anodes on an N type InSb (semiconductor) substrate.

2 In 1993 I commissioned the preparation and testing of an adapted satellite transponder chip containing 5,600 Au on GaAs diodes fabricated in a patch as an expedient for assemblers to find one diode where diodes operating at high frequencies have to be very small. Conductive paste was applied over the face of the chip to connect all the diodes in consistent alignment parallel as required. Next the chip was immersed in a constant temperature pure vegetable oil bath inside a shielding box in the California desert. The chip produced ~25 kTB watts where an output more than 1/2 kTB watts validates the theory that electrical thermal noise (Johnson Nouse) can be rectified and aggregated.
If replication of this test is desired, the chips may still be available as draw down obsolete stock from Virginia Diodes Inc. www.virginiadiodes.com . I have lost contact with the lab that adapted and tested the chip. The C60 / N type InSb version of the chip should perform much better. ~100 watts / cm2 @ 20 C @ 50% diode efficiency @ 10^11 buckyballs / cm2 is estimated.

3 mhuff@mems-exchange.org http://www.memsnet.org/links/foundries

Aloha,
Charles M. Brown
(808) 828-0297
Kilauea, Kauai, Hawaii 96754
abundance@logonhi.net
www.diodearray.com
http://peswiki.com/index.php/OS:CBC:Main_Page

Wow! when will this miracle happen ...
I love to speculate the day when we will be successful in replacing the smoke and limited oil.
But I dont think it will happen soon...

It's getting easer to fabricate diode arrays as technology progresses. Spincasting dispersed buckyballs is a reasonable project for an industrial or academic lab. Let's spread the word until enough people are networked to shatter the pinata and have a wonderful breakthrough.

Aloha, Charlie

I'm frustrated that the diode array isn't at work now to help the world. Man's technological abilities applying cheap and clean energy would then be unified instead of in conflict because of the burdens of perceived entropy and CO2 production. These burdens are leading to a large anti technology current in education. An anti technology current leads to despair instead of progress.

Air conditioners in buildings could make power for pumping water. Water can irrigate plants which moistens the atmosphere. People would cook without firewood, a great drain on forests, or dung, a fertilizer. People would have electric lights anywhere and electronic communication / stimulation / culture / entertainment in farms and villages. Refrigerators and deoxygenated storage can store the harvest. Electric transportation would be clean and quiet. With cheap energy, CO2 can be extracted from the air. Popular Science reported that liquid CO2 is an excellent cloud seeding agent.

Aloha, Charlie

Liquid CO2 does not exist at atmospheric temperatures and pressures. Do you mean "dry Ice" seeding?

O.K. maybe it was released by aircraft as liquid and quickly became cold dry ice plus gaseous CO2. There is a simple device that does this. I haven't suceeded in looking at pre 2002 back issues of Popular Science on the web to refresh my recollection yet.

Aloha, Charlie

Wow, sounds like a combination of the perpetuum mobile and declining enthropy to me

e s

It is.

Another term is Perpetual Motion of the second kind where energy is not gained or lost. Objects in orbit and superconductors are examples of this.

The diode array has had experimental confirmation. Similar independent experiments could be conducted for a few thousand dollars. Some people say that the diode array has a good common sense rating.

View from a Height by Isaac Asimov is a good reference for discussion. Earth as a reservoir of ambient heat, Maxwell's Demon, and Statistical Thermodynamics are introduced.

Aloha, Charlie

Sure, you can heat up your diods with you current



es

Under short circuit conditions that is exactly what happens. During short circuit conditions there is such tight recycling that there is no net heating or cooling or power supplied to a load. This operating condition can be used to trim voltage off in stages from a lot of diode arrays in series. Similarly the diode array can be operated beyond its maximum output point to pull down the voltage. An open circuiteddiode array will also not produce cooling or electrical output power just because no electrical power is drawn off. The inside of a closed insulated box would not change in temperature as a diode array powering any electrical appliances because their use releases heat which equals the heat absorbed by the diode array as it yields electricity. The immediate surroundings of the diode array will be a little cold while the immediate surroundings of the appuiances is a little hot. The diode array will have a slight extra power at the start of its use because it will not yet be at steady state coldness. The diode array fundamentally. The load will start at background temperature and heat to equlibrium in use always maintaining thermal balance. In all cases energy is not created or destroyed. As Perpetual Motion ll becomes possible and practical it wil become the most useful form of energy.

Aloha, Charlie

Going off line more tan a day now

Aloha, Charlie

Hopefully I am not raining on your parade, but I feel I must tell you that there is such thing as a law of energy conservation

e s

Energy is conserved and is fully useful even in thermal form with the diode array. What does the law of energy conservation mean to you?

Aloha, Charlie

It means, that there is no such thing as energy source

e s

O.K. You can have a volume of energy delivered in the form you want according to the conversion ability of a device though. In the case of the diode array, a large unit will absorb a lot of ambient heat (refrigerate a lot) and yield a lot of electrical power which is maximised when an electrical load of matched impedance is placed on the diode array.

Aloha, Charlie

Let us say, you use the electrical power to lift a load.

Then
1. the cooling will reduce enthropy
2. lifting will reduce enthropy

So, your enthropy will be declining - which is an impossibility, according to the Thermodynamics.

e s

Thank you for presenting the Law of Entropy as grounds to reject the diode array. I think that a lot of people feel that way but don't want to talk about it. It is usually one of the first highly mathematical concepts taught in a physics class. Learning it is a rite of passage in school. Professional academic careers in the sciences are eased by accepting this law. It is attractive to some theologians. It applies to billions of dollars worth of machinery. Albert Einstein supported it because life and technology hasn't escaped it. For all this, the Law of Entropy is mostly an observed generalization with a mathematical expression which fits. Richard Feynman has one deeper supportive argument. He argues that a ratchet wheel and spring nudged pawl, a system that rotates in one direction in medium scale devices will fail to work for Brownian Movement at the nanometer scale. Skipping some detail, I think that multiple pawls without springs interacting with a ratchet wheel would work for Brownian Movement at the nanometer scale. Feynman without transitional completeness next argues that diodes will also fail. These are conditions for a new paradigm.

Aloha, Charlie

The evidence in the new paradigm supports the diode array and nano nozzle array. The believers in the new paradigm support the expensive (~$50 k) and daring development work. [Hopefully]The diode array emerges from the nanofabricators running at ~100 watts / sq. cm. winning a peaceful scientific revolution.

Aloha, Charlie

Now, here is a bold idea! If it is less than $50 billon, our {pseudo} science community will not even notice you.

Ask for $50 bill, and you will be a hero

e s

$50 B is a small part of the world's weekly circulation. I'm inclined to let people keep their money but inspire them to spend it in new ways or relieve themselves of some toil. I want to keep thinking rather than absorb money. If thermal entropy is invalid than social, economic, regulatory, and psychological entropy (a need for disparity) becomes suspect. Civilization then doesn't fundamentally need centralized power. If / when the diode array works many people will think this way and a lot of relief and inspiration will be shared. For example, emergence management may make virtual large projects like gigawatts of water redistribution for coherent purposes like accommodating fish spawns and coordinating regional irrigation out of thousands of adaptable megawatt scale pumping and routing stations.

Aloha, Charlie

If you are left with some change unspent, I am willing to help you out

e s

I mind not the enthu because it drives the next.
You success will make us proud but it is our duty to tell you ..that you must give all the details before anyone takes you seriously...
($50B circulates on among G8 so they will be right customers.)
How do you express humour and wisdom?

Little money will fountain up to me. After the breakout (if any), a lot of groups will rush to applications. Let's communicate a lot to forestall potential application patents by establishing craft practice which is not patentable and descriptive writing which renders the material described unpatentable. Let's avoid a swamp of lawyers while there is still hope.

Aloha, Charlie

Details will be determined by process engineers working with nanofabrication machines. That is what the $50k is for. The money needs to get to Mike the nanofab coordinator. The concept is to sprinkle C60 or C84 buckyballs on N type InSb embed and metalize.

Aloha, Charlie

Which Idea is patentable?
The questions may sound strange but are deeply connected with the concept of "me-first"....
Me-First principle says that because I am the first person to invent such an idea , I deserve to be profitted from it ...
The criteria to judge whether an idea is patentable or not...If the idea sounds like an miracle then most probably it is not .. (Even Einstiens Idea was not patentable)
If idea sounds practical and is capable to doing which is already being done with improvements then probably it is patentable...

Flashlights, table lamps, radios, watches, small stoves, small refrigerators, air condtioners, fans, pumps, electric tillers, sodering irons, vacuum cleaners, boat outboard motors, food dehydrators, TVs, video cameras, computers will / should seep into poorer countries without a power grid and work for a long time.

Aloha, Charlie

ok sir...
We need your gift ..pls make it fast.
With best wishes
Dheeraj

I, with a patent lawyer wrote US pat 3,890,161 DIODE ARRAY in 1973 it was granted in 1975, it became public property in 1992. It was based on metal / insulator / metal diodes with at least one element electroplated into small straight pores in several topologies. New materials were made allowable so this basic patent covers the concept well and keeps similar devices from being patented. I want my name known but do not want particular control of the manufacture. The business is too big for a single person. The obvious applications like the flashlights... above should be widely available to people. There is a movement to formalize this attitude called the creative commons. http://peswiki.com/index.php/OS:CBC:Main_Page I have recently presented this concept to a lawyer, Lawrence Lessig, http://www.lessig.org/ who wants more openness in society.

Aloha, Charlie

The obscure feasibility checking prototype worked; the buckyball on semiconductor concept offers great improvement; there is an intense need for diode array based products. I'm stuck.

Aloha, Charlie

Someone at another website asked for this further elaboration of general interest:

In reverse bias the mobile charge carriers are attracted to the applied voltage behind them on the same side widening the depletion region which has very few mobile carriers and has embedded ions of the same polarity as the applied voltage on the same side behind them. The depletion region stratifies by the junction.

The depletion region looks to me like a bladder dam in a tidal channel which deflates when water flows one way letting water spill over and inflates blocking the flow when water flows the other way. The control can be a property of the flow itself so no one has to watch (requiring self defeating external energy, often as light, an obstacle erected by people who don't believe in passive sorting) like a pipe draining the bladder dam on the side downstream when the water should flow / the same pipe upstream, inflating the bladder dam, when the water should be restricted. Alternately, the dam can be more flaplike and lean into the higher water to be blocked.

In the diode array, the applied voltage / output voltage is shared by all and is reverse bias when not shorted out. Mobile charge carriers (electrons in N type material) in individual diodes can move forwards in spite of the reverse bias and ease themselves into flow (also
contributing to the reverse bias) or move in reverse, cutting themselves off with an expanding depletion region.

I anticipate the output voltage to be low with an open circiut of ~0.1 volts because that is the energy of room temperature infrared photons. 0.05 volts would be the voltage for maximum output.

Aloha, Charlie

Originally posted as: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_energy/message/17413

{Hypothetically} A small radio, PDA, or light could be powered by a diode array containing 100 million diodes in 100 sub assemblies in series each containing 1 million diodes in parallel. It would operate at 5 volts, produce 100 milliwatts, and feed 20 milliamperes through a 250 ohm load. The array area of the chip would be 1 / 1000 cm2, ~0.32 mm square. Voltage stabilizing circuitry may be added. The noise voltage of a 250 ohm load producing a full 4 nanowatts of noisepower,noise up to ~1 Thz (easy for the diodes, hard for the load), is 1 millivolt A.C..

Aloha, Charlie

Charlie, get real

There is nothing there. May be a thermocouple.
Just take the $50 billions, and run away.

e s

Charlie, there's one thing I don't understand. (Well, ok, maybe two things ). The theory looks very good. I believe it may be correct, but it's out on the edge where it isn't obvious that we couldn't be mistaken. Therefore, all the proof is in the pudding. Now, you did a sort-of-prototype and it proved the concept. At least, so you say. (If I was an investor, I'd want to pour over those results).

I have followed your writings over the past year or two. You seem to be trying to explain it or show that the theory is correct. I think you should be beyond that. No amount of theory at this point is going to prove anything. A true prototype which works is what you need, and IMHO, the only thing you should direct efforts toward now.

Assuming you have indeed been doing this, why haven't you found anybody to risk the $50K yet? From what I can see, anyone who had that kind of money to play with would be a fool not to risk the chance.

So here's my question (or two): How many people with that kind of money, ie, potential investors, have you talked to? And if any, what was their reason for backing out? (And if not any, why not?).

Business isn't my forte. I turned off a Harvard MBA guy who wanted 20% and a laywer who drew up incorperation papers for Extropic Technologies Inc. in ~1980. I expect the diode array to quickly become a commodity in great demand. I also expect the diode array to be an extremely durable good where newer chips won't displace older chips easily. I don't want to find tricky ways to build mark ups, margins, or profits beyond a well justifiable amount. I want to transcend the common ruthless grab under the trained smile. Trendy fad uses are OK short of weird changes in future parenthood patterns or shortsighted medical uses. I am faulted for being in paradise land on Kauai instead of some business hot spot. A proactive web collaboration under a tight team under a close partnership of proper pyramidal slope (shallow) and size(wide) is needed as soon as possible. The past spell of days at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_energy/ has been valuable. Many people there are strongly attached to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Would it be proper to set up lots of small bets where diode array developers would collect a long odds reward if a prototype worked conclusively? A geometrically growing network of supporters has to be grown. Who has leads?

Aloha, Charlie

Charlie,

If it is you against Second Law of Thermodynamics, you are going to lose every time.

Take it easy,

ES

Yes, I want to nanofab something full of small parts that dance with kTB around the Second Law. I have to find the rare people that will help. 2LT worship wasn't the MBA or lawyer's issue.

Aloha, Charlie

Charlie, do you have something else beyond the advertising? Some schematics, designs with some details, at the very least a model of one of your diodes? because as ES said, this sounds more and more like a thermocouple or a Peltier device.

The schematic symbol for a diode is "v" with a cathode bar under it. Many diodes in consistent alignment parallel are v v v v v v with a wire connection line above and below. For a model think of dropping olives on a pizza which sink through the paste to the crust. The paste represents an insulator to prevent bypassing the diodes; the crust represents N type InSb . Very minimal. I could have described it speaking on a phone to MOSIS, a chip a chip prototyper but they didn't let me try.

If each diode handles ~ 4 nanowatts, a thermal noise power of kTB watts, it can have these properties:
100 millivolts / 40 nanoamperes / 2.5 meg ohms
320 millivolts / 12.8 nanoamperes / 25 meg ohms
1 volt / 4 nanoamperes / 250 meg ohms
3.2 volts / 1.28 nanoamperes / 2. 5 giga ohms

If a diode has a simplified, illustrative forward current of 12.8 nanoamperes half the time and a reverse current of 1.28 nanoamperes half the time, voltage referenced between the edge of
the depletion zone and the anode, which are two reasonable operating conditions, the forward current should predominate. There is a full
time illustrative net current of 5.8 nanoamperes.

InSb has a low band gap. N type InSb has extremely high electron mobility. These characteristics mean that the material can be N type doped into high conductivity and a low reverse breakdown voltage.

I'm looking for allies.

Aloha, Charlie

OK Charlie, you say you are looking at allies. for the time being I am not sure I am an ally or an enemy, since I don't know more details about the substance of your claims.

I worked with diodes, mostly with PSPD's (position sensitive photodetectors) if that means anything to you, so let's drop the pizza and olive picture and get to the point.

What is the phenomenon you claim it is at the basis of your claims? InSb and GaAs have been extensively studied, so I am very curious to see your ideea. So what is the model (physical model I mean) on which your application is based? Up to this moment you have only described generalities about semiconductor diodes.

I don't understand what you mean by detail. The top face of the N type InSb substrate is sprinkled with C60 or C84 buckyballs at a density of 10^11 / cm2. Each buckyball is a diode anode. There is an ohmic contact metal layer on the back face of the substrate and a metal layer contacting the buckyballs on the side of them away from the substrate. There are still details like processing techniques which is what the $50K will be used to determine.

This is not a thermocouple. It can start from a mesoscale uniform temperature (temperature is not uniform on the nanometer scale without high heat conductivity). It will get cold as electrical energy is tapped off.

Aloha, Charlie

OK, so you have an InSb-C60 diode.Fine.Now explain the phenmenology,i.e. how does this thing work. How does it take heat from the ambient, and after it takes it, what happens such that you deliver a DC current?

And speaking of technical details, what thickness will the C60 layer be? Because you might have dominant tunneling from the InSb surface to the metal electrode above rather than "conduction" through fullerrenes. If I recall correctly (there are more than 10 years since I worked with fullerenes), the band gap for C60 is ~3.2-3.6 eV, and you do not have classical conduction of current through electron/hole flow but rather something called hopping (specific mostly to amorphous materials) on states at the edges of the band gap. And the hopping rate might in your case be smaller than tunneling from InSb to the metal electrode covering the C60.
Not to mention that you will need much more than 50K to produce such a device, because if you want a monolayer of C60 (you calim that each C60 will be an anode and I deduce you would like a monolayer), you will have to construct it by nanomanipulation. 50K won't even cover the cost of the instrumentation necessary (which BTW is not instrumentation that is appropriate for industrial processes). If you plan to deposit it by some technique or another, beware that C60 has a tendency to coalesce, to form clumps, hierarchically. Smaller clumps coalesce in larger clumps, which coalesce in even larger clumps, until you reach clumps of the order of half a micron in a layer of a few microns.

Pasti:

Thanks for the details of your concerns. I read from W point contact / insulator /Ni base diode papers that ~0.7 nm was the outer limit for tunneling so the C60 1.2 nm D spacing would be adiquate but close. The C60 is a shottkey diode anode where a high work function material will accept electrons.

Yes, a monolayer of widely dispersed C60s is needed.

Each diode as an electronic component has kTB watts of random power at its disposal. Such a diode is a nonlinear resistor with a direct associaton between conductivity and the instantanious distribution of the electrons in the semiconductor which set up a depletion zone of varying size and well defined stratification in juxtaposition to a conductive zone. When the electrons move towards the anode, conductivity increases: when they withdraw, resistivity increases. The insides of the diodes can change even if the outer extremities of all the diodes are tied together in massive parallel. I have
provided mental images of these features and processes elsewhere.


dcarnahan@nano-lab.com at www.nano-lab.com was investigating prototyping the diode array. They went so far as to borrow the use of spincasting machines. They were working on the clumping problem. I think that they didn't like how excited I was getting about the diode array comming out.

Clumping should be easy to solve in a 1/10% solution.

Aloha, Charlie

CB:"I read from W point contact / insulator /Ni base diode papers that ~0.7 nm was the outer limit for tunneling so the C60 1.2 nm D spacing would be adiquate but close. The C60 is a shottkey diode anode where a high work function material will accept electrons."

First of all, it is a Shottky diode, not shotkey. And those arguments you read for the W/D/Ni do not necessarily apply in the case of your configuration. Do not confuse a layer of insulator wit a monolayer of C60. Monolayers behave very differently than layers. In the cse of the monolayer, for example, you will not have a gap in the C60 (you needa C60 layer for the existence of such a gap), you will only have states introduced by the C60 in the BV/BC of the InSb substrate, and a slight modification of the band structure in C60. So traditional diode theory on your device is lost, it won't work that way.

CB:"Yes, a monolayer of widely dispersed C60s is needed".

Well, then you must apply for a grant that is at the very least one order of magnitude larger than what you have in mind.

CB:"Each diode as an electronic component has kTB watts of random power at its disposal. Such a diode is a nonlinear resistor with a direct associaton between conductivity and the instantanious distribution of the electrons in the semiconductor which set up a depletion zone of varying size and well defined stratification in juxtaposition to a conductive zone. When the electrons move towards the anode, conductivity increases: when they withdraw, resistivity increases. The insides of the diodes can change even if the outer extremities of all the diodes are tied together in massive parallel. I have
provided mental images of these features and processes elsewhere."

As I said, spare me the mental images, WMD on a pizza slice and such. Try to explain the physical phenomenology.

Above you have only described the equilibrium of a standard MOS device, which is nothing new. This (fluctutions that is))does not yield you any net current, regardles of the impedance of the diode. So, how does one of your diodes work to transform surrounding heat into current?


CB:"dcarnahan@nano-lab.com at www.nano-lab.com was investigating prototyping the diode array."

I found no useful info on that site, sorry.

CB:"They went so far as to borrow the use of spincasting machines. They were working on the clumping problem."

Spincasting of C60? you must be kidding. And those fellows definitely have not too much of an idea about C60 deposition.

First of all, C60 is a rather insoluble matrial.

Second of all, even if you dissolve it in something (usually a polar solvent), it behaves like a colloid and will automatically coalesce in solution. I could have told you that before even attempting to spincast films.

Third of all, good luck with obtaining a monolayer of C60 by spinning. That will be a stupid waste of research money.

Fourth of all, the clumping I was talking about is present in the layer, after the deposition, and not in the gel.

Fifth of all, even if you make a monolayer of C60, the metal deposition for the upper electrode will short out your C60 monolayer.Think about how you can tightly pack speres on s asurface, and how metal atoms will get in the deposition process into the empty spaces resulting from the packing od the C60 spheres. You might want to look at more than one monolayer of C60.

CB:"I think that they didn't like how excited I was getting about the diode array comming out."

Optimism is good, enthusiasm is good. Pestering though, can become annoying. it would have pissed me off too.

CB: "Clumping should be easy to solve in a 1/10% solution."

Good luck with that!

No offense, but I suggest you read more about the physics of a diode/MOS device, C60, deposition techniques and similar. Up to this moment, you have disregarded elementary phenomenology in a device like yours, and applied to it theory that just doesn't work that way in your particular case. You would have an extremely hard time convincing me to invest in your ideea.

Pasti: Thank you for being a now-hear-this person not a yes man.


The buckyballs are to be directly in contact with the substrate.
Part of the research will be to find out if the semiconductor under the buckyballs has to be annealed.
The embeddant surrounds the buckyballs. The paper on tunneling insulators assures me that 1.2 nm is thick enough to be an electrical barrier.
Researchers have produced monolayers of uniform 12 nm Co spheres . C60 may also be dispersible though it is much smaller.
A diode array based on ~10 nm metal spheres could be made but should be done only if it doesn't deflect too much money from the goal of maximum diode packing density.
Johnson Noise is disequilibrium power in resistors.
Perhaps buckyballs could be dispersed dry electrostatically under a very thin cover slip.
Buckyballs as particles can be suspended in any liquid; perhaps some liquids would impart an electric charge on the buckyballs which would disperse them.
Mike of the nanofab network gave me the initial $50K quote. If serious money begins to emerge, the quote can be refined. During the refining everyone can make sure that adequate assumptions are made.

Aloha, Charlie

CB:"The buckyballs are to be directly in contact with the substrate."

OK.

CB:"Part of the research will be to find out if the semiconductor under the buckyballs has to be annealed."

?!? And you need the annealing why? You already have the semiconductor structure present, you don't need anymore annealing.

CB: "The embeddant surrounds the buckyballs."

If you use an embeddant, for the most common embeddants, your conduction will go through the embeddant, not throught he fullerenes.

CB: "The paper on tunneling insulators assures me that 1.2 nm is thick enough to be an electrical barrier."

Well, that might work for some layers of insulators, but does not work for monolayers. It is elementary solid state physics.

CB: "Researchers have produced monolayers of uniform 12 nm Co spheres.C60 may also be dispersible though it is much smaller."

Yes, and they have produced also monolayers of polymers through dipping, but how is this relevant to what you want to do? The fact that Co can be depositied in monolayers has no bearing on the deposition of C60. Each element/compund has its own physics and chemistry, and you cannot extrapolate one's behavior to the other. According to your reasoning, just because Co can be radioactive, so should be C60. And this is not whty C has radioactive isotopes.

CB:"Johnson Noise is disequilibrium power in resistors."

No, it's not. It is due to the scattering of the electrons on the phonons.This does not mean non-equilibrium (instead of disequilibrium). You should also learn the technical lingo if you want to be able to convince investors....

CB: "Perhaps buckyballs could be dispersed dry electrostatically under a very thin cover slip."

Right! That is why they come in soot-like form, because they can easily be diespersed electrically! I don't think so.

CB: "Buckyballs as particles can be suspended in any liquid;..."

This is gibberish. Big time. Either browse the literature in the mid-nineties, or just try to disolve C60 in water and benzene. You will see exactly how "easy" it is to suspend C60 in any liquid.

CB:"...perhaps some liquids would impart an electric charge on the buckyballs which would disperse them..."

Riight!Why don't you actually browse the literature on fullerenes, and see waht a colloid is, and how a colloidal suspension id formed.

CB: "Mike of the nanofab network gave me the initial $50K quote. If serious money begins to emerge, the quote can be refined. During the refining everyone can make sure that adequate assumptions are made."

Well, what can I say, if Mike from nanofab said it, how can I contradict him...!Charlie, as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, in this way you won't get a dime from investors. You are not proficient about the current status in the fields that are important to your project, you lack basic knowledge regarding the elementary processes involved in your device, and even worse, we've been corresponding for some time now and you still haven't explained to my satisafaction how your device works, how it takes heat from the ambient and converts it into DC current.

The most important question on this topic is if Johnson Noise, thermally excited thermal radio frequency power, can be rectified and then the rectified output of many diodes in consistent physical orientation parallel can be aggregated for an external electrical load with the load imposing only the proper burden on the supply.

May I hear a variety of responses to this question?

Aloha, Charlie

CB:"The most important question on this topic is if Johnson Noise, thermally excited thermal radio frequency power, can be rectified and then the rectified output of many diodes in consistent physical orientation parallel can be aggregated for an external electrical load with the load imposing only the proper burden on the supply."

Aha, so this is what you assume your current generating mechanism is for your diodes.

Well, there is only one (fundamental) problem with this. The "Johnson noise mechanism" is not a current generationg mechanism in a junction. It is an effect of the resistance/impedance on the current flow. ALREADY EXISTING current flow. And it produces fluctuations in the already existinc DC?AC current.

As I said before, the Johnson noise appears because the electrons "hit" the ions in the wires, resistances, etc, and instead of flowing straight, their flow is perturbes by these "colisions" with the ions. It is similar to the way an athlete has to go through a bunch of swinging tires or sandbags. Instead of running straight the distance, he is hit ny the swinging bags, and runcs much slower, and with much more energy consumption. Furthermore, this noise is random, so it has no DC component.

There are only a few mechanisms generating carriers in a diode: photoeffect, biasing, thermoelectronic (Richardson) emission. And as far as I know, all the applications for these effects have been developed almost half a century ago.

If indeed you want to harness heat from the environment, the best bet would be photodiodesdiodes for the optical and far IR spectrum, so that they can take the heat and transform it into electric current. But then these are avenues already already explored by the solar power "people".

So no, with this mechanism your diodes won't do anything aong the lines you say they would. It ain't working that way.

Many noise generators produce noise greater than kTB by sending current driven by a voltage, the two factors of D.C. Power, through a noisy medium like a vacuum or gas tube, or semiconductor. The noise power is less than the D.C. Power. Such a beginning inevitably produces losses. Johnson Noise in a resistor does not require energizing D.C. electrical power. Mobile electrons in a resistor move at random to produce random radio frequency power. At a rectifying junction between N type InSb and a C60 Shottkey anode, more electrons can be conducted forward from the semiconductor to the anode than in the reverse direction. In a massively parallel system with all the anodes on a branch supplying electrons to a load and all the cathodes on the electron return branch, net current can be aggregated by a plurality of diodes at an equilibrium voltage supplying a higher power load.

Aloha, Charlie

Aha, this becomes intresting. You are actually talking about thermal noise in a resistor (the thermal component of the Johnson noise). OK, that would make some sense.

But now I am even more confused.Why do you need a didode array? To incorporate the rectifier in the device? The reasoning for the rectifying junction as you mention it does not apply for your diode, since the diode behavior does not apply to random phenomena of this sort. If it did, you would obtain infinitely increasing voltage between the electrodes, which does not happen.

But if this is your ideea, this is trivially easy to test. Forget the rectification for a moment, and go to Radio Shack to by a bunch of resistors of a few megohms. Then connect them in whatever configuration you like (parallel seems to be your preference, such that you "gain" current). Then measure the thermal noise at the electrodes of your system (for this you will need either a ratherexpensive DVM, or alternatively an even more expensive frequency analizer or scope)for a varying number of resistors connected since you are about to measure microvolt rms voltages). It might help if you had a friend, aquaintance in a university lab or in an electronics lab. See if your total Johnson current actually increases!
Then heat the resistors with a hair dryer, and see what happens. If it works with the resistors, then you can think about rectification. But nevertheless, you would have a tangible (and easily reproducible) proof that your ideea works in practice. Which might be very persuasive for your (potential)inventors.

Sorry for the too many typos in the last message, I really am in a hurry.

its ok ...
but i opened the message to see whether any conclusion has been reached...but i guess not yet...
It is theoretically possible to generate light from bio-degradable substances..
their are insects and fishes which do it... we need to understand their technology and then we will be able to get the eco friendly light without coal and reactors...
Essentially the light is generated using a chemical reaction in which photons play a vital role... energy level change is triggered with the absobtion of low frequency photons and light is visible with the emission of high frequency photons..
Certain Biological chemical substance have meta stable state which is more likely to be reached when a fall of energy level is triggered.
Lev1
Lev2
Lev3
From lev2 electrons reach to level1(using infra red photon absorbtion) and then it falls straight to lev3 generating visible light of high frequency...
Overall energy loss is covered up by agitaing the atoms in a particular fashion by the generated heat of the chemical reaction triggered by the 'food'eaten by the insect.
Cheers

Hmmm, wouldn't the internal resistance of the voltmeter have to be much larger than that of the resistors? The Nyquist noise inside the voltmeter would be dominant, unless you use a cryogenic voltmeter. But lowering the temperature of the voltmeter would defeat the purpose of the experiment.

You're right, it should be larger, but since he wants a parallel configuration, his resistance will drop to 100's of kohms, and any respectable DVM should be able to handle that. But in case he wants a series configuration, he should probably use an op-amp buffer (which should have it's own problems, but never mind that). But the ideea was that there is a much simpler circuit he can use to test his concept, without the C60/inSb malarkey.
But something sounds fishy to me to this thing as a source of current. I don't exactly know what it is, but if you apply a classical reasoning, the resistors should heat in cascade up to breakdown. If I have some time, I will take a look.

I believe the written sources that tend to establish that several resistors in a group revert to a single equivalent resistor.

I believe that the parallel diodes will gather a reverse open circuit voltage up to the infra red photon energy or a voltage where reverse avalanche breakdown current returns the power.

I do expect each diode to rectify the Johnson noise at the depletion region with its asymmetrical tunneling making the forward resistance lower. The interior of each diode is a separate kTB element.

I vaguely remember from Scientific American a chemical system using a Cr compound that collected IR photons and released an occasional visible light photon.

Aloha, Charlie

CB:"I believe the written sources that tend to establish that several resistors in a group revert to a single equivalent resistor."

Well said that you believe the above. Now, it is the time that you actually start looking at the details. First of all, your noise voltage is not proportional to the resistance, it is proportional to the square root of the resistance in the case of thermal noise. Second of all, the current have a random distribution, which means that you cannot exacly add their rms values to get the total rms value. So it maters that you have several resistors in series/parallel, when it comes to testing your theory.

CB:"I believe that the parallel diodes will gather a reverse open circuit voltage up to the infra red photon energy or a voltage where reverse avalanche breakdown current returns the power."

Ok, OK, you belive that too. The problem is that your "beliefs" above do not make sense. A voltage cannot be compared with photon energy, so you most likely wanted to state something else. The sentence " voltage where reverse avalanche breakdown current returns the power" really does not make any sense, except maybe to you. In general, once the avalanche process starts, you cannot stop it, and the device gets shot.

CB: "I do expect each diode to rectify the Johnson noise at the depletion region with its asymmetrical tunneling making the forward resistance lower. The interior of each diode is a separate kTB element."

First of all,unless you use tunnel diodes, there is no tunneling involved. In MIS diodes, you do not have (in general) tunneling. What you have is called conduction, and the mechanism for charge flow is well known and it's not tunneling.
Second of all, do you have a model of your diode (you know, resistances, capacitances, idela diodes, noise sources) that justifies your claim?

CB: "I vaguely remember from Scientific American a chemical system using a Cr compound that collected IR photons and released an occasional visible light photon."

So? What relevance do your memories have regarding your device? I remember in Nature an article stating that you can achieve cold fusion in a glass, or that some morons form Samsung or so exceeded the speed of light. See any relevance with respect to your device?

I agree that the square root of the voltage is proportional to the resistance for constant power. This means that the reciprocal of the square root of the current is proportional to the resistance for constant power. These relationships hold whether the resistance is in one resistor or many. For example, 4 resistors of 1 ohm each in series is the same as a single 4 ohm resistor. If the constant power is 1 watt , 2 volts is involved when the resistance is 4 ohms (either 1+1+1+1 ohms or 1 x 4 ohms) and 1 volt is involved when the resistance is 1 ohm.

Tunneling is a colorful word for leakage conductivity through a barrier. There is some leakage through the depletion zone in standard diodes. A diode has asymmetrical conductivity involving amounts of current useful in a circuit through a narrow depletion zone under forward voltage conditions and a useful blockage of current through a wide depletion zone under reverse voltage conditions.

Constant leakage current created by hole / electron pair generation will eventually keep the reverse voltage from going to infinity. Experiment suggests that the open circuit voltage is 0.1 V. If a well designed array operates at a higher voltage, I will drop my provisional hypothesis of an association to IR photon energy. Electromagnetic energy does involve photon energies measured in electron volts where an electron volt is the energy of an electron accelerated by an electromotive force of one volt.

Aloha, Charlie

OOPS I made another time wasting mistake:

The numerical example of the resistors is correct but the description should be that constant power implies that the voltage squared is proportional to the resistance. Constant power also implies that the reciprocal current squared is proportional to the resistance.

Aloha, Charlie

Charlie, just assume that this works. Then, unless some ghosts are making it work, you could simulate this process on a computer. Since the total entropy decreases in this process, the simulation cannot always map different initial states to different final states. I.e. there must exist states x and x', with x different from x' such that after time t both are mapped to the same final state.


But that would mean that the system is not invariant under time reversion. Also you can see that you cannot (always) calculate the initial state from the final state. So, the simulation must be throwing away information (which contradicts the laws of physics).

Information about random states is uninportant to collect, hold, or use. Maxwell's demon was burdended with too much work. He had to figuratively put his palm out for a tip, inspect for smuggled towels, remember everyone's name and call the car valet. Capturing energy as the guests walk over pressure bladders won't pay the wages here. If molecules push through flaps because they are there and going in the preferred direction and the event is not recorded in a high signal to noise memory the energy from returning the compressed molecues can run a turbine producing net energy.

Aloha, Charlie

It doesn't matter how you want to implement it. Whatever you do, there exists a microscopic description of it which also describes the noise. You can't use the noise as a ''black box'' in which you can hide entropy.

A hammer can do more work in driving nails over its life than the energy used to create the hammer. Otherwise there would be no savings in energy by using tools. A highly ordered state where all the diodes are facing the same way can be established which can impress more order on random electrical power than the accompanying deterioration of the order of the diodes.

Aloha, Charlie

Dear Charlie,
Your open-source attitude is refreshing, Especially after my conversations with Rodney Cox of Borealis. He is quite mercenary with his plans for an energy hungry world to pay top dollar for his power chips.

After reviewing your technology page I was wondering:

Is that 50% of carnot efficiency?

What is the estimated cost....$/Khr......if your arrays were in mass production?

And, What are your thoughts about the quantum tunneling technology of the Borealis chips?


Thanks for your attention,


Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA 22840
(540) 289-9750

The diode array is not Carnot cycle limited; it works where the Carnot fficiency would be zero. 50% is for realistic devices with losses after using Johnson Noise as a random open band radio power intermediary in converting heat according to its absolute temperature into intermittant D.C. power which is aggregated by parallel conststantly aligned diodes.

I have heard a little of the Borealis chips. They are apparently small gap thermonic devices. They do not believe that my device will work.

Aloha, Charlie

I didn't answer two of Eriche's questions.

Power from the diode array should be cheap. They may last a million hours ( 113 years ). A Killowatt chip may cost a dollar ( 2005 $ ). If cheap energy is generally adopted, all goods will take less effort to obtain in a great virtuous circle fed by imaginative application. For example, metals may be picked off the deep seabed cheaply.

Quantum effects may lead to better thermonic anodes and cathodes.

Aloha, Charlie

Wow, now I see ........no delta T....

No meso scale delta T. There is irrepressible nanometer scale delta T. We can use it and not loose it.

Aloha, Charlie

I ran to edit after the above to clarify that a diode array producing electrical power will also produce cooling which accross a thermal resistor is delta T. There is little thermal resistance between the parts of a diode array so this cooling appears as a lower operating temperature as heat is absorbed if most of the temperature drop is in the heat exchanger supplying the diode array or a deliberate restriction on the heat supply is set up as, for example, where an insulated box becomes a refrigerator. The intermediaries work under these conditions according to the absolute temperature squared.

Diversity is cheap.

Aloha Charlie

Dear Charlie:
I sent Rodney Cox of Borealis your site asking for his opinion, here's his reply:


Erich

These guys are talking of thousands of watts per square inch.

There is simply no way to move that much heat on or off such a device.

As for generating 50 nanowatts of power, that is scientifically interesting but not very useful.

It would take 20 million of the 50 nanowatt devices to make a watt of power.

Keep sending me this stuff.

We like to look at everything.

rtc


At 06:55 PM 7/26/2005, Shengar@aol.com wrote:

Dear Rodney:

Thought you would appreciate the low cost and easy fabrication of that graphite hydrogen storagesystem, and it seems it development may be quick enough for your car.

I've read that Ballard power estimates the total well to wheel efficiency for their fuel cell cars at 27%, compared to internal combustion's 17%. At 80% of carnot ,and your motors, yours must be at least 40%, do you have an estimate?

Also, you better hope this diode approach doesn't work. They talk that the costs of a Kilowatt chip may be a dollar and last a million hours ( 113 years ).

Diode Array


Erich J. Knight

I used to claum a killowatt / cm2 at 10 nm spacung between the buckyballs for 10^12 diodes / cm2 but backed off to 100 watts / cm2 / 35 nm spacing / 10^11 diodes / cm2. 35 nm spacing gives the reverse bias depletion zone room to grow. I don't know how big the reverse bias depletion zone will be. A little bit of crowding may pay off because a lot of inefficient diodes beats a lot fewer very efficient diodes. Bringing a hundred watts / cm2 of heat to the diodes is hard enough. Making diodes by the billions by sprinkeling buckyballs seems to me cheap and easy. Nature has no guile so the simple coherence of having all the diodes right side up for consistant algnment and metalized into massive parallel is enough to rectify and aggregate the Johnson Noise.

It probably was Mr. Cox who asked me to convince him in a short statement that my device would work (I can look that up)... My last computer ate all its email...

Dr. Crowe at VDI will look up a diode array patch with a lot of small anodes for me when he returns from vacation ~Aug 1.

Aloha, Charlie

I e-mailed Virginia Diode for their thoughts, here's the reply:

Hello Erich,

Frankly, we have no association with Mr. Brown and do not have any faith in his proposed concept. Personally, I believe he has the physics all wrong. I saw from your email that the patent was dated thirty years ago. Thats's a long time. I imagine that if this really worked we would have known by now.

I have asked Mr. Brown to stop using our company name and information in his correspondence with respect to this technology.

Regards,
Tom Crowe, President
Virginia Diodes, Inc.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: admin@readyhosting.com [mailto:admin@readyhosting.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:53 PM
> To: VDIRFQ@virginiadiodes.com
> Subject: Product Information Request
>

> ***
> Name: Erich J. Knight
> Company: Shenandoah Gardens

> Comments:
>
> Dear Sirs:
>
> What is your opinion on the viability of this radical technology proposed by
> Charles M. Brown:
>
>

I just opened an email from Dr. Crowe reminding me that he dosn't endorse the diode array in this application. He dosen't want his employees bothered with it it. Please don't contact him or his company. He with everyone else will hear about it if / when a power prototype is shown at a media conference.

Aloha, Charlie

Charlie, re: --The original materials specified in the patent have been superseded by C60 carbon buckyballs as anodes on an N type InSb (semiconductor) substrate.--

Did you file a patent application for this?

Charlie, do you know about these?:

1) http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee293a/
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee293a/DocumA.html
Note Chapter 10 "Radio Noise" - "Skipped" (Just my luck!)

2) United States Patent Application 20030183268
Kind Code A1
Shanefield, Daniel Jay October 2, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device for conversion of environmental thermal energy into direct current electricity


Abstract
Nearly-random electron motion in the primary wire of a transformer is amplified by that transformer, and the varying peaks of voltage drive some current pulses through a rectifying diode. These pulses charge a capacitor, and that charge can provide electrical energy through output wires, to do useful work elsewhere.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventors: Shanefield, Daniel Jay; (Princeton, NJ)
Correspondence Name and Address: Daniel J. Shanefield
119 Jefferson Road
Princeton
NJ
08540-3373
US
Link
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars...DN/200 30183268

3) United States Patent Application 20030192582
Kind Code A1
Guevara, Hector October 16, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thermal electric generator


Abstract
The Thermal Electric Generator (TEG) includes a high efficiency multi-layer semiconductor device adapted to enable heat, over a wide temperature range, to be converted into useful power. This is not a simple solar panel. The "heat" referred to here can be from radiation or any other convection or conduction source. One important aspect is that the TEG not only works in a "solar" environment, but is more particularly adapted to recover energy from heat generated by electronic components and circuits, mechanical rotating equipment and machinery, waste energy, furnaces, geothermal, etc. This heat comes in the form of released electrons, thus, the invention is based on the concept of fluctuation voltages and the conversion of the same into useful energy, which translates into an increased efficiency of over 50% compared to the peak existing efficiency (i.e., 16%) of existing solar panels


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventors: Guevara, Hector; (Bohemia, NY)
Link
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22Guevara%2C+Hector%22.IN.&OS=IN/

Why would not you guyz rather made gold coins from lead?

e s

I don't want our civilization to be bound and gagged by excess patents and copyrights. I am mostly interested in a balance between proper attribution of ideas and the need for all ideas to be available for synergetic combination.

One claim on my patent makes allowance for new materials. Furthermore, I have discussed upgrading to buckyballs over the web enough to render it unpatentable.

I would like Dr. Crowe's help and do not want him to claim that there is no evidence of the diode array working so I sent him another copy of the test results. The first copy was sent years ago without acknowlegment.

Aloha, Charlie

Here's a little psychology 101 - if it's free folks will think it's worth what they pay for it - nothing.

OTOH...well, you get my point.

FWIW, I think it IS worth something and I wish you and Shanefield - who is certainly no dummy - well.

The sharp increase in quality of life due to inventions should be passed on to general civilization. There is no need for a rich cohort to charge what the market thinks it should bear and trickle down back the wealth it gains for such a service. Such an arrangement is enough to drive some theorists into advocating highly progressive taxation. Naturally, the cohort musters its lobbyists to sully such people. It is more elegant to rush the diode array, for example, to the transparent commodity stage. The diode array can power ego massaging / life enhancing robots for those who want them.

Meanwhile, many physicists would rather believe that time ceases in order to protect the universe from boredom when entropic greyness conquers all while refusing to believe that guileless mechanisms will capture tiny random thermal opportunities.

With cheap energy we can turn lead into gold - or not - if extracting useful materials from the ocean is more expedient.

I'll drop Shanefield a postcard.

Aloha, Charlie

Please let me back off from going too far. I think that a high but not crippling introductory price of a new invention can justified to support intense start up growth. Management should quickly develop an idea of future demand and anticipate it within a reasonable range that won't starve success or flood bad applications. A low price will attract users and fend off intruders. A high price will support expansion and new application development. Avoiding ostentation will allow money to go to better uses.

Aloha, Charlie

lengould Posted: Aug 2 2005, 04:11 AM


Advanced Member


Group: Members
Posts: 202
Member No.: 590
Joined: 7-August 04


Actually the concept is legitimate physics, well known as "Optical Rectena". It works on the principle of receiving light radiation with an array of (very tiny) antennae, just like microwaves or FM etc. Theoretically capable of sunlight conversion efficiencies in the 70%+ range with no doped crystals etc. like current photovoltaics. Being worked on fairly intensively in one or more US research labs, with some good progress reported. Biggest difficulty is building the tiny diode rectifiers required to convert the energy recieved on the antenna into dc electricity, because the required dimensions are a couple of orders of magnitude smaller than present semiconductor fabs are doing.

I can't believe, with how well known and published the concept is, that anyone might be granted a patent on it though

Here's a DARPA dicument from 2000
http://www.darpa.mil/dso/trans/energy/briefings/11itn.pdf

Is there agreement that an optical rectena designed for ambient thermal infra red will absorb heat directly from its environment? This agreement will force its subjects out of the Second Law paradigm. The Second Law is one of the largest paradigms in science. There may be many advantages to civilization in the new paradigm beyond the Second Law where heat can be completely recycled.

The diode array is different than an optical rectena. The diode array uses random electronic motions at frequencies much lower than ambient IR. Nevertheless the power density by area is higher than ambient IR for very small circuit elements. The diode array is simple in that it can use unregistered fabrication. The thinness of the embedded buckyball layer requires attention however.

Aloha, Charlie

Whoa, long topic!

Aloha, Charlie.

So i'm interested in your concept. i'd only heard a scrap of it when i wrote the part Erich kindly provided. i've had the time to think about what you've been saying and i've decided you're not considering capturing IR photons on an antenna, but using a "somewhat" comparable technique to tap into thermal energy at the molecular level. First off, there's no reason i can see that that should violate any law of thermodynamics. The energy your device would extract is "paid for" by the cooling of the ambient, correct?

Agreed that could be a larger pool of energy than ambient IR photons, but still not sure how much is there. eg the enthalpy of a kg of CO2 at 15 degC is 450 kJoules. (i had that one handy) To round it off, that's about a cu meter of CO2. If one of your devices extracted (i think you mentioned) 100 watts (100 J/sec) from a cu m of eg. CO2 at eg. 100% effic.(can't think of any "losses"?) then the entire enthalpy content of that cu. m will be reduced in eg. one minute by only 6 kJoules, correct? About 1.33%, or roughly 3.8 degC. Would need a bit of a "reverse heat sink" and ambient air or water handler i suppose. Minor problem though.

So do you have evidence that buckyballs can act as diodes? Would they be better that tubes? cause i see that a lab in Japan has fabricated a dense "pile rug" type of arrangement of CNT's standing straight up off the substrate, all spaced out and everything. Check the image at Xintek http://www.xintek.com/products/materials/aligned-cnts.html Not exactly what you need but..... ?


Good luck.

Apologies to Xintek, they're not a Japanese company but located in N Carolina. I'd seen a similar product from a Japanese firm before, mixed them up.

It dosen't violate the first law which is entirely reasnable to me. 1L is that energy never appears from nowhere or disappears into nowhere. The second Law is more complicated, that heat can only be turned into work by steam engine like machines with a firebox (hot) and condenser (cold). The heat taken as work dosen't reach the condenser but some of the heat does ( a higher fraction as the temperature difference is smaller)and becomes waste heat at an intermediate temperature. The diode array works with small electrical / thermal fluctuations at a nominally uniform temperature where the parts that, in fluctuation, create electrical power remove heat from the diode array and the electrical power is aggregated from a shifting half of many small sites (diodes) and removed in electrical form which is conducted away to be used as electrical power beyond the diode array. Energy is not created or destroyed here.

An scholarly treatment of the Second Law for both advocates and opponents is at: http://www.mdpi.net/entropy/papers/e6010001.pdf

The Xyntek product looks like coconut covered cookies. They are unnecessarily large. Because of their uniformaty they could be used as a master in electron beam lithographic pattern printers. Buckyballs are good as parts because they are of uniform electrical properties, size, and shape. I expect them to work well as non semiconductor anodes which quickly absorb electrons that leave the semiconductor cathode.

There will be a lot of interest in how much air has to flow through heat exchangers in various applications.

A non pressurized tank of solid CO2 at -78 C or less needs a diode array with enough cooling ability to keep the tank cold as heat leaks through the insulation. I expect diode arrays with due care to be reliable enough for this application. One reliability issue is assuring that the diode array can always export the electrical power it produces when refrigerating. There should be an emergency resistive dissipator that turns the electricity into heat if the general power network fails.

Aloha, Charlie

Ok agreed your proposal appears to violate the second law, but I think only on the macro scale. Wouldn't it be true that at a micro scale, eg. the scale of an individual one of your diodes, the second law is still obeyed is it not?

I note a key phrase from the article you've referenced. "But the internal energy E can be decrease without any decrease of the free energy at nonzero temperature T > 0 if the entropy S decreases at the same time. As this anecdote shows, in defending the second law, one must be careful not to implicitly assume it, but this is often not as easy at it looks. As recounted by Callender, even luminaries such as Szilard - in his analysis of a mechanical Maxwell demon - fell prey to such circular reasoning. "

Which I choose to interpret as saying something along the lines of "If a machine extracts energy from a system which exhibits no apparent delta T, it is still not a violation of second law provided an entropy balance in maintained." So, see above, no reason entropy balance cannot be maintained, right?

Further,your reference, discussing "systematic reductions in total entropy" "Such systematic reductions are possible if Brownian motion is not quite chaotic or could be made ordered under equilibrium conditions."

Is that the proposed source of the energy into which your system should tap?

I'll identify your paragraph breaks as being lines 4,10,14, and 17.

Re lines 1-3, A macro violation of 2LT is built from micro conditions.

If 2LT dosen't apply to micro conditions than obedience is meaningless. If the microstates fluctuate so that they can be treated as temporary carnot cycles that obey 2LT and have a collective result that violates 2LT than 2LT is violated at the macro level. Having an increasing understanding of the Universe is important and so is finding clear ways to discribe it. Let's think about how to replace 2LT with something true on the micro and macro levels.

Re line 5-6: I have trouble with this part. Nonfree nonthermal internal energy could be chemical energy.

Re lines 8-9: I recognized circular reasoning in discussion of rectifier currents when an author said that the second law required that the forward and reverse current had to be equal and then concluded it.

Re lines 10- 13: The diode array can refrigerate water without decreasing T when freezing it while exporting electrical power. This would violate 2LT and decrease entropy (entropy = uniformity). Entropy change has nothing to do with the total system's energy.

Re lines 15-16: Diodes order the motion of electricity. Johnson Noise is in micro chaotic equlibrium. Equlibrium has a constant macro resolution and fluctuating micro approximations.

Consistant alignment parallel electrical connection combines the micro diodes into a macro collective.

Aloha, Charlie

Recently Ji Ung Lee of GE Global Research in New York fabricated a perfect diode from a C nanotube.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/11 .

Perhaps this development can be extended to make an exploratory diode array. It would also extend the investigations of others. It can probably be done quickly and smoothly. It is not as ultimately
practical for large scale production as the C60 / n InSb diode array.

The C SWNT device requires a cathode termination, a + gate, an ? gate, and an anode termination. These can be fabricated as 4 parallel stripes. Hundreds of semiconducting C SWNTs can cross the support stripes like frets on a stringed musical instrument. Insulating NB nanotubes can separate the C nanotubes. There is a high series resistance on the present perfect diode. This feature is not needed in this application. A stabilizing capacitor can be added.

Aloha, Charlie

Another analytical diode array prototype:

Many vertical [on a typical screen] N type InSb stripes on a substrate and below [on a horizontal device] many horizontal [on a typical screen] conductive carbon nanotubes:

N
t
y
p
e
Many rows of conductive carbon nanotubes
I
n
S
b

Each intersection is an n InSb Schottky anode diode. These diodes have a greater cross section than C60 buckyballs but the dispersion and embedding issues are avoided.

Aloha, Charlie

I would appreciate being informed about solids as objects involved with room temperature Brownian motion. A C60 Buckyball is about 19^2 times as massive as a H2 molecule; An H2 molecule has a mean thermal speed of ~1,600 M/sec. Does a C60 Buckyball show any tendency to move at ~88 M/sec in a hard vacuum? If a pollen grain showns Brownian motion suspended in water will it also show motion amidst a small volume of dry pollen grains? I want to check theory with observation.

Aloha, Charlie

Referring to earlier criticisms in this thread:
1] I believe that insulating embeddants can be found.
2] I don't see how a monolayer of widely dispersed C60 molecules will render the embedding agent a conductor.
3] Johnson noise is not the scattering of bias current. It is random original current.
4] Radioactivity was not under discussion; presenting false analogies does not make unrelated analogies false.

Plausibly the buckyballs can be dispersed with sonication transducers on the spincaster disk during spinup.

I would appreciate having other people propose solutions.

Aloha, Charlie

A Chinese team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University built several demonstration electron tubes that escape the Second Law of Thermodynamics. They are eager to persue development.

http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0311/0311104.pdf nov 2003
http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0509/0509111.pdf sept 2005

A correspondent sent me further information when I sent him the links to the Chinese research:

I was aware of X. Fu's original paper (Energy Convrs. Mgmt. 22, 1-3
(1982); {and also of two rebuttals [Y. R. Wang, (Energy Convrs. Mgmt. 23,
185-191 (1983); and Y. Z. Wang (Energy Convrs. Mgmt. 26, 249-252; as well
as a paper that provides a general discussion of this and related issues
(K. Zhang and K. Zhang, Phys. Rev. A 46, 4598-4605 (1992)]}. But I was
unaware of X. Fu's and Z. Fu's more recent arXiv papers. The positive
experimental results reported in these arXiv papers, will, especially if
confirmed independently, of course overcome the earlier theoretical
rebuttals.

Aloha, Charlie