samtsai.com

PC Magazine:
The BetaBattery is not based on chemical reaction. Instead, it relies on the decay of the hydrogen isotope tritium. This continuous emission of electrons is the key to the ever-present charge in BetaBatteries. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, so after 12.3 years, its output is half its original charge. At 40 years, it has one-tenth its original charge. That kind of longevity is much longer than conventional batteries can muster.

Whoa…after 12 years of use, this nuclear battery still have 50% of charge left!!! Incredible application of isotope. Unfortunately….it’s RADIOACTIVE!!! Hence, it cannot be used by the general public.

University of Rochester Press Release:
New ‘Nuclear Battery’ Runs 10 Years, 10 Times More Powerful
A battery with a lifespan measured in decades is in development at the University of Rochester, as scientists demonstrate a new fabrication method that in its roughest form is already 10 times more efficient than current nuclear batteries—and has the potential to be nearly 200 times more efficient. The details of the technology, already licensed to BetaBatt Inc., appears in today’s issue of Advanced Materials.

A layer of silicon riddled with pits, each of which would fill with the radioactive tritium gas, would be like dropping the sun into a deep well lined with solar panels. Almost all of the sun’s rays, no matter which way they were emitted, would strike a well wall. Only those rays that fired straight up and out of the well would be lost. With this reasoning, Fauchet devised a method to excavate pits into a microscopic piece of silicon. The pits, or wells, are only about a micron wide (about four ten-thousandths of an inch), but are more than 40 microns deep.

More pictures about BetaBatt battery can be found here.

Bookmark to: