This makes a lot of netizens think about the micro-nuclear battery mentioned before, this idea was put forward by scientists in 1999 is not a new concept. The working principle of this battery actually makes sense, but because it involves the nuclear power aspect makes many people worry about this battery even if it is really out of that safety is not safe, people will always put their own safety in the first place. This battery is different from the nuclear power plant nuclear fission called electricity. The so-called miniature nuclear battery, in fact, is not the use of nuclear fission into the principle of electricity, but the use of radioactive isotope decay to generate energy.
Like the netizen mentioned 20 years of non-electricity of the nuclear battery, should be the previous foreign media mentioned a civilian tritium battery, the principle of electricity production does not need to go through the heat conversion. The so-called "nuclear material" used in such batteries is tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, whose nucleus consists of one proton and two neutrons, and is also known as super-heavy hydrogen.
This is a radioactive substance that undergoes beta decay, emitting high-speed electrons called beta rays, which are converted to helium 3. The battery uses the beta rays produced by tritium's decay directly to shoot these high-speed electrons into a semiconductor, creating a weak electric current.
Specifically, in tritium's beta decay, a neutron in the nucleus is transformed into a proton, while an electron, a beta particle, is released. The high-energy electron beam emitted by tritium enters the capture layer after passing through the window channel, and during the effective region through the p-n junction, the electrons inside the semiconductor material will be excited to the excited state by the beta particle to form electron-hole pairs, and due to the built-in electric field inside the p-n junction, the electrons and holes will be separated to the two ends of the p-n junction, resulting in the formation of a macroscopic voltage. A current is generated if a loop is formed in the two segments of the p-n junction.
Because this mechanism is similar to the photovoltaic effect, nuclear batteries that use beta decay as an energy source are also called beta-volt batteries. Also because tritium has a half-life of 12.43 years, this type of battery can continue to provide batteries over a long period of time. However, it does not produce much current and is only suitable for applications that consume less power but require uninterrupted power for an extremely long period of time, such as powering built-in medical devices, and military or space uses.
Why can't it be mass-produced?
So if it's feasible, why haven't we seen any mass-produced nuclear batteries yet?
1, the first is the safety, "nuclear" this word, we are not very strange, in many news have seen, such as "nuclear power plant explosion", "nuclear bombs will destroy mankind! It seems that the word "nuclear" is synonymous with danger, and residents living in the vicinity of nuclear power plants may even talk about "nuclear" to the extent that they are scared of the word "nuclear".
And it is precisely because people are subconsciously afraid of nuclear energy, which has led to the civilian use of nuclear energy has been very slow, so even if the research and development of nuclear batteries has been realized in the laboratory, scientists still have to carry out a long safety assessment of them, and at the same time also have to spend a longer time to publicize, in order to eliminate people's misgivings. If the safety assessment is not done properly, then I am afraid that even if it is mass produced, no one will dare to use it. To quote a rather amusing paragraph, "Ordinary batteries heat up: I'm going to run out of power; nuclear batteries heat up: I'm going to blow up!"
2, followed by security, we know, nuclear batteries want to apply in the phone, there are size limitations, even if the current nuclear batteries to avoid nuclear fission, the use of radioactive isotopes of nuclear decay, to reduce its danger, but for cell phones such as the power consumption of the device is not very big, it will lead to nuclear energy release of energy can only be released in a limited space, resulting in heat can not be promptly The battery can be converted or exported, then with the accumulation of time, the risk of battery rupture or explosion is very likely to occur.
3. In addition, still because of the security, in the choice of isotopes, although currently in the natural world proved or man-made radioisotopes are many, but based on the type of radiation, radiation safety, energy stability, half-life and price considerations, scientists have not yet found a satisfactory material, the so-called tritium, but also can be seen as excessive elements only.
4. Finally, I would like to say, don't look at the battery ...... A cell phone, you can really use 20 years? This can last 20 years of nuclear batteries, will not be a little too wasteful?