Russian scientists have developed nickel-63-based large-capacity nuclear battery life can be more than a hundred years

Although lithium battery technology has been ubiquitous in people's daily lives, it seems to have gradually approached the bottleneck in terms of energy density improvement. In order to realize the goal of â€œchanging batteries for decades,â€ scientists began to focus on the development of new nuclear batteries. However, the energy density of current prototype devices is low, and there is still some distance from practicality. The good news is that Russian researchers have just developed a new nuclear battery design based on nickel-63, which has a higher energy density than common commercial batteries.

Russian researchers have developed a nuclear battery prototype (via: MIPT) with much higher energy density than other devices

Nuclear power has always been highly controversial because any dissipating nuclear material may sustain dangerous radiation in the environment for decades (or even centuries).

But for the same reason, if we can properly use this feature, we can let the nuclear power device release energy slowly and continuously:

"Some nuclear batteries are based on the principle of 'betavoltaics', where radioactive sources within the device attenuate and emit beta particles (electrons and positrons).

When they interact with the semiconductor layer, they can generate electricity. Unfortunately, although these batteries can continue to provide energy for a long time, the power density also means that they can only be 'smooth.' â€

Structure diagram of a prototype of a new nuclear battery (via:V.Bormashovetal.)

Providing relatively low energy for a long time makes the nuclear power supply more suitable for applications where it is difficult to replace batteries (such as spacecraft or implanted devices such as pacemakers).

In the past few years, we have also seen a 'strontium-based' battery that can decompose water molecules to produce electricity, and another type of 'NanoTritium' battery that lasts 20 years. .

However, a new type of nuclear battery developed jointly by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Institute of Superhard and New Carbon Materials Technology (TISNCM), and the National University of Science and Technology MISIS has adopted a Nickel-63 based design.

The radioisotope has a half-life of more than 100 years. The research team designed a new layout to increase the power density of the battery. They determined that if it is wrapped in a 10 Î¼m thick sandwich structure, the most effective layer thickness of nickel-63 is 2 Î¼m.

The picture shows a prototype of a new nuclear battery (via: Institute of Superhard and New Carbon Materials Technology)

In their prototype, they included 200 such 'diamond energy converters' and achieved 1Î¼W output power. The converted energy density of 10 Î¼W/cm3 means that it can power a modern pacemaker.

Taking into account the half-life of nickel-63, the nuclear battery has an energy density of 3300 mWh/g, more than 10 times that of conventional chemical batteries.

In addition, researchers have developed a more efficient method to mass produce diamond thin layers with minimal loss. Although the production of nickel-63 may be tricky to a large extent, the team is confident that it will be produced on an industrial scale 10 years later.

In the future, the team plans to continue improving the design of nuclear batteries and has identified some ways to increase battery power. These include nickel-rich 63, changing the structure of the diamond converter, and giving these converters more surface area.

[Research picture: a is the relationship between radioactive nickel foil and material thickness, b is the relationship between electron absorption efficiency and thickness of diamond transducer (via: MIPT)]