Electrochemical loading enhances deuterium fusion rates in a metal target

Nuclear fusion research for energy applications aims to create conditions that release more energy than required to initiate the fusion process¹. To generate meaningful amounts of energy, fuels such as deuterium need to be spatially confined to increase the collision probability of particles^2-4. We therefore set out to investigate whether electrochemically loading a metal lattice with deuterium fuel could increase the probability of nuclear fusion events. Here we report a benchtop fusion reactor that enabled us to bombard a palladium metal target with deuterium ions. These deuterium ions undergo deuterium-deuterium fusion reactions within the palladium metal. We showed that the in situ electrochemical loading of deuterium into the palladium target resulted in a 15(2)% increase in deuterium-deuterium fusion rates. This experiment shows how the electrochemical loading of a metal target at the electronvolt energy scale can affect nuclear reactions at the megaelectronvolt energy scale.