Coin-sized nuclear batteries to revolutionise electronics
We may live in the 21st century, but up untill now we still haven't been able to make decent batteries.
It looks like that might be about to change
A nuclear battery is not a new concept. For years they have been praised for their longevity and ability to keep running for years, decades longer than the lifespan of ordinary batteries.
Research engineers at the University of Missouri have developed a battery which takes advantage of the decay of benign radioactive elements to create electricity. While nuclear batteries have been used in healthcare, space equipment and military devices, the potential they hold could rule out the need for wireless power.
The real development here is the size factor. Before this feat of engineering, due to the nature of the battery, the radioactive element would decay and provide power, but in the process would damage the semiconductor device which actually collects the energy.
But through using a liquid semiconductor, the particles radiating from the radioactive isotope can pass through more fluidly causing far less damage, as the particles in liquids are far more spread out than those of a solid.
According to the BBC, not only could these devices potentially last hundreds of years, the “renewable factor” could be fixed before the problem even arose.
Gadgets and items of technology last a set number of months or years through either a product life cycle or overuse. But the battery could be taken out, recycled and put into a new device which would carry on going. Why dispose of a battery which not only has a precious element to it, but will continue working for longer after the owner has died?
Digressing for a second - could nuclear batteries be device-generic in the near future? Manufacturers could cut the cost of devices down by removing any battery or power equipment, and have a slide-in battery which you buy separately, and can swap and change with other devices like a universal battery port as and when the device fails or gets replaced.
Some would be naturally concerned with the “nuclear” element to this. For example, terrorists using this to cause mass casualties or death; it simply cannot be used in this way.
But this technology strikes a personal note for me. I wrote a few weeks ago about an experimental surgery called deep-brain stimulation which can mask the symptoms of serious neurological illnesses - Parkinson’s, dystonia, and Tourette’s syndrome - the condition I suffer from.
By using this technology, the pacemaker which will be fitted in the space between my scapula (shoulder blade) and clavicle (collarbone) could be far smaller than the cigarette-box-sized device which is normally used. They now have these devices to just larger than a coin, and hope in the future could be even smaller and almost seamless with the devices they power.
Aesthetics aside, the battery will last far longer than the host patients’ life span, meaning that the battery will never have to be recharged or replaced through invasive surgery.
But take the medical element of the equation for a moment. Just think what this technology could mean for laptops, notebooks, mobile phones; perhaps even further - why couldn’t this be installed in televisions which eat up electricity like no other?
Reality is an invention of my imagination.
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When it becomes commercial we will see another leap forward in technology developments as so many things have been out of reach due to a good power source
I am so sick of changing bloody batteries all the time
When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all
Yay, batteries now included.
Hey B4L it could be the guy in your avatar making em lol
Seriously its a great step forward in technology.
So one question.
When the device that using the battery lets of sparks and smoke do i run for the lead suit or is it too late?
Seriously great idea, now they need to make a much larger version for electric cars of the future.
Oh and don't forget to buy shares in uranium mining companies.
Cool man!
Lesbians of the world rejoice............
Buzz...........Buzz........Hmmmm........Hmmmm..... ....
c427537 (13-10-09)
You might be dissappointed to know how this batteries actually work and what they can't do.
There was talk about using nuclear batteries in Laptop computers not that long ago.
I crunched some numbers to work out how much tritium was required to power a laptop and how big the battery would be. It turned out to be larger than a family car.
These little batteries are no different. They really cannot power anything and people's expectations of them are going to be something akin to flying cars.
If you want to fly, buy a plane. If you want a battery, get a pack of AA liPo's.
Their operation in theory is simple. Beta particles carry a charge, and if they cross a semiconductor junction then they will cause a potential difference in much the same way that a solar cell does with photons. Smoke detectors work in a similar way, but use alpha particles to discharge two plates of a capacitor. If no current is flowing then the capacitor will not discharge and the unit sounds an alarm.
In these nuclear batteries, the radioactive isotope is manufactured into the semiconductor. A very weak but energetic beta emitter like tritium is ideal.
Half life is about 12 years and the plastic wrap will shield the battery.
The problem is that huge amounts of tritium are required to do anything even slightly useful. Currents produced measure in picoamps or more correctly attoamps. (10^-18)
Literally thousands of cells are required to get a sensible current. They're useless for "i want it now" kinds of power.
Instead the concept behind them is to run them like their solar cell cousins.
That is that when the device isn't in use, the nuclear batteries are trickle charging supercapacitors or chemical batteries like LiPo's. So while the device is sitting unused, it's charging itself. very very slowly.
Any kind of serious use, will require charging via conventional means.
There is another kind of "nuclear battery" or rather an automatic mini nuclear power station. These are called "hyperion" generators.
If they made them to last companys will go broke.Nothing these days are made to last to long.
Man, I'm hanging for the next generation of battery to come along. As long as your going to rain on the parade, what other viable alternitives to we have? And yes, I want my flying car with a boot mounted 'Mr Fusion'Originally Posted by trash
Reality is an invention of my imagination.
ಠ_ಠ
There goes the Flux Capacitor then LOL
When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all
Just as many great inventions get shelved so as not to affect certain companies bottom line
Nuclear batteries are nothing new,
i remember flicking through an old electronics australia magazine from the 60's that was being tossed out at tech. (this was 98),
and no shit there were nuclear batteries for sale with a (get this) 20yr life expectancy. i actually kept a few mags as they had historical value 1 had a write up on the new 747 jumbo and another had a write up about the role parks played on the lunar landing.
ill dig them out and see if i can find the add.
remember that voyager 1 is running on nuclear betteries and is still ticking 32yrs later.
Whats happening with Hydrogen power cells ? aint they the new battery or battery station
Raining on Parades ... A nice cold hard dose of reality is what I got to serve
I want a flying car too, but reality is always brings it crashing to the ground in one way or another.
I'm not sure that I buy into the conspiracy theory about companies not making products to last. In some cases companies like Sidchrome rely on that kind of reputation against cheaper lower quality imported products. Price seems to be the bottom line, it's the price that sells the item, not it's quality. At least until the consumer is sick of poor quality.
Low quality and poor quality should not be confused, neither should high quality and good quality. If an item performs as expected, then it is good quality, even if it is low quality.
The AK-47 is a low quality weapon, but a good quality product. It may be crude and simple but it is cheap and reliable.
A high quality weapon may jam when it gets sand in it. Poor quality is not always obvious at first.
Good quality is = the product meets your expectations and you can rely on it to do so in the future.
The nuclear batteries that you might be thinking of would be RTG's
Radioisotope Thermal Generators. They're a little different again and there is two types.
The most common type found in spacecraft and pacemakers uses radioactive decay of an isotope (weak nuclear force) like Strontium 90 or Plutonium 238. The decay heats a bank of thermocouples (thermopile) that then produce electricity. The problem with these is that the can't be turned off. They are constantly on.
The other version uses fission (strong nuclear force) to heat the thermopile and produce electricity. The advantage with this is that it can be kept off until needed and then turned on, and the power output can be controlled to save fuel. Further more, the radioactive decay of the fission products also contributes to the heat and further powers the RTG. The fission product isotopes are weak nuclear force decay and cannot be turned off. It can create a kind of thermal inertia in the RTG.
Hydrogen ... go down to Jaycar. You can buy a hydrogen fuel cell for about $45.
I suspect bureaucracy has more to do with it than companies trying to impede progress.
Godzilla (14-10-09)
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