It appears that nuclear diamond batteries are entering the market. China’s Betavolt is already experimenting with the BV100 battery, which generates 100 microwatts at a voltage of 3 V. Research and development continues, so more innovations of this type will probably appear soon. We can expect smartphones that will never need to be charged or small drones that will never need to land.
Betavolt BV100. Credit: Betavolt.
Chinese company Beijing Betavolt New Energy Technology recently introduced a new modular battery that uses the radioactive isotope nickel-63 in combination with a fourth-generation diamond semiconductor. The resulting battery should be able to provide energy for 50 years, which still sounds like science fiction nowadays.
As it turns out, diamond is finding an amazing new use. Credit: Pavel.Somov, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
As David Szondy rightly mentions on the platform New Atlas, nuclear battery technology gives the impression of something super revolutionary, but the opposite is true. Various concepts for nuclear batteries and similar technologies have emerged since the early 1950s. In most cases these were different forms of radioisotope thermoelectric generators, used mainly in space applications, sometimes also on Earth, for example for automatic monitoring stations in remote areas.
As we wrote at OSLU, in 2016 a new principle of nuclear batteries appeared, which was based on diamond layers doped with a radioactive isotope. The first attempt in this direction used first nickel-63 and then the familiar radioactive carbon-14. This technology is based on the use of isotopes with beta radiation. The isotopes in question emit high-energy electrons or positrons. The diamond matrix then acts as a semiconductor and generates an electric current.
Internal components of the BV100 battery. Credit: Betavolt.
Betavolt’s new battery, called the BV100, contains 10-micron-thick layers of single-crystalline semiconductor diamond sandwiched between a 2-micron layer of the isotope nickel-63. Each “sandwich” of diamond layers and isotope layers can generate an electric current. The battery has a modular design that can easily include hundreds of such modules.
The complete battery is stored in durable packaging that protects the environment from radiation and the inside of the battery from damage. In this case, the BV100 battery measures 15 x 15 x 5 millimeters and generates 100 microwatts at 3 V. Betavolt believes that one day such a battery will power a smartphone that will never need to be recharged, or perhaps a small drone that will never have need to be recharged. land for energy supply.
Looks like it won’t take long. Betavolt organizes the patents and the BV100 battery is said to be already in pilot production. Additionally, a larger 1-watt variant is expected to appear in 2025. As Betavolt points out, the BV100 battery was expected to store energy at 10 times the density of comparable lithium batteries. At the same time, it should not burn or explode. A nice plus is that nickel-63 is converted into the quite harmless non-radioactive stable isotope copper-63 and, in principle, there are no problems in recycling such a battery.
Battery research and development will continue. Betavolt is keeping an eye on other isotopes, such as strontium-90, promethium-147 and deuterium, with which it could create other types of diamond nuclear batteries. Designers of smartphones, drones and many other similar power-hungry devices should get smarter. For example, it may be seen on battlefields in the near future.
Video: Gravitas | China’s nuclear battery innovation could make ‘charging’ a thing of the past | WINS
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New Atlas 16.1.2024.
2024-01-17 19:29:23
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