Question: @Scientists! Have you ever watched Iron Man 1, 2 or 3 and ever thought... What IS that Arc Reactor made from in his chest... And can we make one? (Without killing ourselves with Palladium or any other toxic substance...)

Well, Ciarán that sounds very cool indeed!
Now… Me being a huge nerd within the area of Iron Man to Transformers… 🙂
I did a bit of research on some theorys and wikis
The ark is apparently some form of fusion reactor that also generates an electromagnetic field
It runs off palladium to mediate cold fussion
Now here I quote one of the sites I read from
Palladium has been proposed as a substrate for “cold” fusion that does not require hot plasmas and containment toroids, but this concept is pretty widely discredited in the real world. Palladium does, however, have some interesting capture and decay properties. Wikipedia: Isotopes of palladium

Palladium isotope Pd-103 produces Rh-103 (rhodium) via electron capture. This means an inner electron is absorbed by the nucleus, merging with a proton to produce a neutron and an energetic photon — a gamma ray.

Another isotope, Pd-107, produces Ag-107 (silver) via beta decay, releasing an electron when a neutron turns into a proton. (This is kind of the opposite reaction as the above.) Now, in real-world physics, the electrons balance the resulting atomic nuclei — silver and rhodium have different numbers of protons from palladium, and the produced/consumed electrons just balance out the proton count so there is no net flow of electricity.

I propose that Howard Stark found a way (using comic-book physics) to utilize the beta decay of Pd-107 ions as an electron source for the electron capture of Pd-103, thereby producing an electric circuit between two different radioactive isotopes. Pd-103 is very radioactive (17 day half-life) compared to Pd-107 (6.5 million year half-life) so there would need to be dramatically more of the heavier isotope to compensate for the disparity in decay rates.

The palladium core of the device would most likely be Pd-107, which emits high-energy electrons as it decays into silver. This is a pretty stable isotope that we would expect to be present in the normal (non-separated) palladium that Tony might salvage from a conventional weapon.

Since we know the device uses charged particles travelling within a ring of electromagnets, I surmise that a tiny amount of Pd-103 is ionized by an electric arc (thus the reactor’s name, and start-up power requirement), which then allows Pd-103+ to be circulated at high velocity within the outer ring of the device. The ionization acts to delay the electron capture step until the atom encounters a free electron, and the high kinetic energy due to velocity increases the chances of electron capture occurring once an electron is encountered. In effect, the radioactive decay of Pd-103 can be started, stopped, and throttled by the device simply by controlling the ionization and circulation of the Pd-103.
This information, to me, suggests the arc is very possible but very complicated as a result.
So to summarize: electrons project outward from the inner core, and gamma rays project inward from the outer ring. Because this electron/photon counterflow creates a deficit of electrons (relative to protons) in the core, a massive electrostatic potential is developed and the palladium core attracts lower-energy electrons from the suit’s wiring. The ejection of electrons from the core towards the rim of the device produces an electrical cell capable of generating enormous voltage and current.
Now on another note, I noticed and it is quite obvious, Tony has “Palladium Poisioning….” I’ve read more theorys on why DOCTORS Couldnt help Tony! I couldnt be palladium else the doctors could help a little atleast!
Another aspect of the original model palladium arc reactor was poisoning due to “palladium toxicity.” It’s very possible that palladium is simply being ejected from the device into Tony’s blood by all the high-energy collisions going on, but this doesn’t explain the freaky circuit-looking lines on his chest, and it doesn’t explain why doctors can’t help him. I have a theory that fits the symptoms better. Remember, the proposed palladium decay reactions produce rhodium and silver. Excess internal silver is known to stain skin blue.Rhodium compounds also stain skin, and are highly toxic. (Chemical properties, Health and Environmental effects) In fact, because most people have essentially zero exposure to rhodium, the toxicity of rhodium is very poorly-understood. This perfectly explains why Tony didn’t seek help from the medical establishment for his accumulated heavy metal toxicity — because he knew the doctors wouldn’t know how to deal with rhodium poisoning. Tony Stark didn’t have simple palladium poisoning, he had “palladium decay-product” poisoning!

So you see, everything fits together perfectly. The evidence all points towards the arc reactor relying on a Pd-103/Pd-107 radio-isotopic decay cell to produce electrical current.

Now Scientists, I did get MOST of this from diffrent websites, but I think its very cool and I thought I could share it with you 😉
When I am older I want to work on stuff like this. Physics! Science of Energy! That kind of thing, to change the world!

Log in to Reply