Mick Weinstein1

Palladium: An Investable Metal That Defies Physics

Comment submitted by a physicist friend of a Seeking Alpha reader:


I have looked at the article, and I am not convinced that Pd will have a particularly bright future, any more than any other rare metal The point he makes about fuel cells requiring PGM metals is incorrect - there are organic films that also perform as the role of proton filters and I suspect these will be used rather than Pd structures. The fact that Pd can absorb 900 times its volume of H is interesting, but this is not enough to make it a viable storage medium because of its cost. The absorption gives the H a density in the Pd of almost exactly the same value it has in liquid hydrogen - a peculiar coincidence I believe, although there may be some fundamental reason for this. We know that fusion does not occur spontaneously in liquid hydrogen, and I am confident that it is not easily induced when the hydrogen is in a Pd matrix either. I did a quick look at current thinking on "cold fusion", and I still believe it is voodoo science - lots of claims but no reproducible or credible results. - As you said, mining stocks obey their own rules, so it may be a good investment regardless, but I am not inclined to jump on the band wagon.