Matter Transmutation Made Easy... What If?

[Spacescifi]

Often the method to transform one element to another involves heat reactions.

What if we had a kind of forcefield that could remove and collect specific atoms or neutrons from an element at will. An atomic extractor field of sorts.

What could you do with it? What kind of technology could you develop? Could it be applied to space travel? Rocketry?

[sevenperforce]

On 10/16/2019 at 10:06 AM, Spacescifi said:

What if we had a kind of forcefield that could remove and collect specific atoms or neutrons from an element at will. An atomic extractor field of sorts.

[snip]

But anyway, if such a thing existed, any competent physicist would be able to tell you how much minimum energy would be required to operate it and how much waste heat it would produce.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Vanamonde

[kerbiloid]

21 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

specific atoms or neutrons from an element

Does an element consist of atoms and neutrons?

Spoiler

It's a Transgfiguration Spell, but the wiki says "Incantation unknown".
So, it works, but they hide.

 

[Terwin]

2 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Does an element consist of atoms and neutrons?

Well, I suppose you could consider protons to be hydrogen atoms, or at least hydrogen ions.

Of course as free neutrons have a half-life of roughly 10 minutes, I suppose you could say elements are made of atoms, soon to be atoms, and electrons.

 

On the plus side, this force field would allow you to extract energy form any element heavier than Iron(26) by pulling bits off of it.

(if the field also allows you to fuse any two atoms, it will allow you to extract energy from any pair of elements with atomic numbers that add up to 26 or less, not to mention making it much easier to search for the theorized plate  of stability)

 

[kerbiloid]

4 minutes ago, Terwin said:

Well, I suppose you could consider protons to be hydrogen atoms, or at least hydrogen ions.

Of course as free neutrons have a half-life of roughly 10 minutes, I suppose you could say elements are made of atoms, soon to be atoms, and electrons.

We can also treat the neutrons (i.e. ¹₀n) as neutral atoms of the 0th element (Nullium? Zerium? Neutrium?).
And it's radioactive, as we can see.

So, in this case why distinguish "neutrons" from "atoms"?

Edited October 17, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Spacescifi]

Just now, Terwin said:

Well, I suppose you could consider protons to be hydrogen atoms, or at least hydrogen ions.

Of course as free neutrons have a half-life of roughly 10 minutes, I suppose you could say elements are made of atoms, soon to be atoms, and electrons.

 

On the plus side, this force field would allow you to extract energy form any element heavier than Iron(26) by pulling bits off of it.

(if the field also allows you to fuse any two atoms, it will allow you to extract energy from any pair of elements with atomic numbers that add up to 26 or less, not to mention making it much easier to search for the theorized plate  of stability)

 

So that is a possible mechanism for how the field works? Fusion would be required, since the remaining mass must either fuse or else explode violently?

Can you in theory fuse any two atoms? I think so, but in real life it requires a star's worth of pressure and mass.

[Terwin]

18 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

So that is a possible mechanism for how the field works? Fusion would be required, since the remaining mass must either fuse or else explode violently?

Can you in theory fuse any two atoms? I think so, but in real life it requires a star's worth of pressure and mass.

Generally they use ion beams and shoot them at a target made up of the other element they want to fuse with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability#Synthesis_problems

You need to have the total protons and neutrons to be for a reasonably stable isotope, or it will not last long enough to do more than detect it's decay.

The problem is, the proportion of neutrons is higher in larger nuclei and both the beam and the target need to made of something stable enough to handle for processing/storage.

 

[Vanamonde]

Again, folks, no one is forcing you to read threads. If you don't care for the subject of a thread, just skip it. There's no reason to find fault with the person asking the question. 

[KSK]

3 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

So that is a possible mechanism for how the field works? Fusion would be required, since the remaining mass must either fuse or else explode violently?

Can you in theory fuse any two atoms? I think so, but in real life it requires a star's worth of pressure and mass.

Sort of. Around nickel and iron (elements 28 and 26 respectively) the nuclear binding energy per nucleon reaches a maximum. After that it would take more energy to fuse nuclei than is released by the fusion process, so fusing beyond iron or nickel isn't seen in stars - and even then, nickel is only produced, literally, in the final days of a large (7-11 solar masses) star's life.

Or so Wikipedia tells me in about 10 minutes of reading. I haven't taken to time to chase down the references and check the details, although you certainly can if you wish.

Any elements heavier than that are only naturally produced in supernovae. I think you can produce most isotopes synthetically as per @Terwin's reply but obviously that's not particularly efficient for making isotopes in useful quantities.

 

 

[magnemoe]

5 hours ago, Terwin said:

Well, I suppose you could consider protons to be hydrogen atoms, or at least hydrogen ions.

Of course as free neutrons have a half-life of roughly 10 minutes, I suppose you could say elements are made of atoms, soon to be atoms, and electrons.

 

On the plus side, this force field would allow you to extract energy form any element heavier than Iron(26) by pulling bits off of it.

(if the field also allows you to fuse any two atoms, it will allow you to extract energy from any pair of elements with atomic numbers that add up to 26 or less, not to mention making it much easier to search for the theorized plate  of stability)

Yes, this would in practice be an free energy generator. All else would be marginal uses. 
Transmutation is an thing, all plutonium and other trans uranium elements also stuff like tritium and helium 3
Downside it that the end product will be very radioactive with some exceptions. 

[kerbiloid]

Of course, one shouldn't hesitate about the short-living radioactive by-products creation during the process of a mineral deneutronization. Say, a trivial ¹⁵O.