Will Your iPhone 9 Be Powered By a Nuclear Betavoltaic Battery?
Recent advances in an alternative battery technology using Betavoltaics could potentially power future cars and spaceships using electrons from radioactive decay.
Betavoltaics is not a brand new idea, it’s over 50 years old. If you needed a pacemaker in the 1970s it may have been powered by this technology until cheaper more conventional batteries became popular.. Nuclear energies employed in common products are more prevalent than you may think. For example, some emergency exit signs rely on radioluminescence to light up during a power outage using the radioactive decay of tritium to light the sign. Common smoke detectors used in countless households create a small amount of current by using the alpha radiation produced by the radioactive isotope Americium-241. The knee-jerk negative reaction most people have to the word radiation and nuclear is often unfounded.
Betavoltaics works as a battery by converting beta particles (high energy electrons) produced by radioactive decay into usable current. This process starts when a neutron in a radioactive atom spontaneously converts into proton. Protons are less massive than a neutron so where does that extra mass go? Into the creation of an electron (plus a neutrino). This is beta decay and it is mediated by one of my least favorite fundamental forces of nature called the weak force or weak interaction.
Betavoltaics has never found widespread use though because it has the following issues.
- It is not very efficient…suitable mainly for low power applications, especially in remote locations.
- The power output decreases over time. This is related to half-life (not the game)
- The radiation released usually damages sensitive semiconductors.
- The common negative perception of radiation or nuclear-based products.
The potential upsides though are a Siren song to researchers because Betavoltaics can last for years without being replaced and also work in hazardous environments that conventional batteries could not.
Researchers at the University of Missouri though have made significant progress in tackling some of these issues especially regarding efficiency. They accomplished this by using radioactive strontium-90 and for the first time, a water-based solution. Water is key here for a couple of reasons. First of all it is a great shield against radiation. So much so that it is often used in nuclear reactors to tame nasty radiation and prevent overheating and potential meltdowns. Water then can prevent unwanted radiation from damaging sensitive electronics. The water will therefore have within it a tremendous amount of stored radiation energy infused within it and it is the exploitation of this untapped and previously unstudied resource that seems to be the primary breakthrough here.
Who knows what will become of this. I’ve learned not to get my hopes up when it comes to the weekly announcements of the “Latest Breakthrough in Battery Technology”. There are of course many ways this could fail. For example, a nuclear battery like this would not be inherently dangerous but what about intentional mishandling or plain old stupidity. I do like the idea however that this advance uses a completely different approach to battery technology than conventional lithium-ion batteries that we’re always reading about. The more irons in the fire the better. Just hurry up please.
Technical Paper
Water is NOT a great shield to radiation, LOTS and LOTS of water is… not a few drops of it in your battery… Anything a few drops of water can shield, a tin foil can too…
Forgot to ask, are you making tea or nuclear power cell?
By reading further, the press released never indicated anything related to phones, nor most of the stuff and how well it would have worked that you have mentioned above.
It is clear you are just like those anti-vaxxer newsies that don’t know shit, just love to spew useless guess and sensationalism. Please go back to anti-vaxxer camp or anti-climate change crowd where you belonged. Leave us fact based people alone.
Maniac,
To get my facts I did not rely on just the press releases which I’m sure you’d agree should never be your only source of information when writing about a technical topic.
I read the original paper that the press releases were based on to improve my understanding and to make sure the press releases weren’t misinterpreting or exaggerating. The link is at the bottom of the post if you missed it.
I went to trusted science sites to make sure I was accurate about beta decay, radioluminescence and betavoltaics as well.
The press releases mentioned using betavoltaics in cars and spaceships which is exactly what I state in the opening sentence. I read through some science forums as well in which they discuss the possibility of using this technology for cell phones which seems very plausible at some point in the future.
I try not to make useless guesses in any of my posts but informed speculation based on the facts of science to extrapolate future possibilities. Ironically, there’s not one statement in this specific post that I would regard as a guess or even sensationalistic since everything I wrote was based on my sources mentioned above, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
If you’d care to be more specific I could address specific comments I made that you think are not based on facts.
These might be somewhat dangerous, but it isn’t like current lithium ion batteries aren’t dangerous. They overheat and even explode all the time. Depending upon the amounts of strontium, or other radioactive material, this could, in the end, be safer than our current generation of batteries.
My understanding is that with regards to nuclear processes, there are 4 basic types of radiation in play: alpha particles (essentially bare helium nuclei), beta particles (electrons), gamma rays, and neutrons (which themselves come in low- and high-energy versions). Alpha particles are essentially harmless as long as you don’t ingest anything that emits them (in which case they become very, very bad). They are short-range and can be stopped by pretty much anything, even a sheet of paper. Beta particles can penetrate a bit further but can be stopped with a conducting surface, like foil. I’m guessing water should be a pretty good beta shield as well, though I don’t know how much you’d need. Gamma rays are pretty penetrating but not something we really have to worry about here.
Water is an excellent absorber of neutrons, and is used both as a neutron shield and moderator in reactor cores. However you do need quite a bit of it, much more I would imagine than could be found in a battery, so I can see where Maniac’s concerns may be coming from. That said, as with gamma rays this is not really an issue. Sr-90 decays into Y-90 via beta decay with a half-life of 29 years. Y-90 then decays into Zr-90 also via beta decay, with a half-life of 64 hours. So as long as your sample is pure Sr-90, the only radiation it should be giving off is beta.
Nonetheless Bob I was a little confused where you wrote, “The water will therefore have within it a tremendous amount of stored radiation energy infused within it”. (Homeopathic energy? 😉 ) Perhaps you could clarify that a bit? Did you mean to say the water was electrified? Or serving as a conductor or transmitter of the beta electrons?
BTW a while back Coursera offered an *excellent* course called “A Look at Nuclear Science & Technology.” If they offer it again I highly recommend it to anyone interested in nuclear power and other nuclear technologies.
Power output?
The actual use of water? instead of your ridiculous comment about a great shield. If you read a little bit more, you will see that Sr90’s beta emission is too energetic for energy collection device and need to be slowed down, hence “buffered” as mentioned from your source.
May I suggest an example of a much better written article?
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.extremetech.com%2Fextreme%2F190555-this-nuclear-battery-could-power-your-smartphone-forever-as-long-as-you-dont-value-your-life-or-sperm-count-too-highly&h=dAQFaT0IH
They said it much better than you do.