This tiny nuclear battery can last 50 years without recharging — and it’s coming in 2025
Meet BetaVolt’s BV100: a minuscule marvel that’s tinier than a coin, yet holds the power of a radioactive isotope of nickel, which decays into copper, fueling devices for a whopping 50 years. Though, don’t hold your breath for it to juice up your smartphone just yet, an expert cautions.
Enter the Chinese scientists, who’ve crafted a nuclear battery capable of dishing out power for five decades sans recharge. This innovative tech, leveraging a version of nickel as its core energy source, is set to become the first of its kind available for general public purchase, as announced by Betavolt on January 8.
The coin-sized BV100, measuring just 0.6 x 0.6 x 0.2 inches (15 x 15 x 5 millimeters), churns out 100 microwatts of power. If used for gadgets like smartphones, future iterations of this battery could eliminate the need for charging altogether, company reps claim.
However, Juan Claudio Nino, a materials scientist from the University of Florida, remains skeptical. Given its small size, it houses a limited amount of radioisotope, producing a mere 0.01% of the energy needed for a smartphone. “It’s adequate for a pacemaker or perhaps a passive wireless sensor, but for a phone? Not in its current state,” he notes.
Nuclear batteries aren’t new to the scene, as Nino explained to Live Science. These devices, first developed in the early ’50s, exploit the energy from decaying radioactive isotopes. As long as the isotope decays, the battery remains active. This explains why nuclear batteries, with their decades-long lifespans, are often deployed in spacecraft or unattended scientific stations. They’re also favored for pacemakers.
Betavolt’s creation taps into nickel-63 as its radioactive heart, which transitions into copper through a beta pathway. “Simply put, a neutron (neutral subatomic particle) morphs into a proton (positive subatomic particle) by emitting an electron. If you can harness that electron, you’ve got yourself a source of electricity,” Nino explained.
The BV100 employs a semiconductor layer to capture these electrons and channel them in an orderly fashion through the battery. “Think of a semiconductor as a middle ground between a conductor (like metal) and an insulator (like rubber). Electrons move only if they’ve got enough energy, allowing us to control their movement,” Nino elaborated.
Betavolt’s ingenious design encapsulates the radioactive nickel within two ultrathin diamond plates, a superb semiconducting material, transforming the electrons from radioactive decay into a practical electric current.
When radioisotopes are used in space, they pose minimal risk. However, if they are to be used in devices like pacemakers or potentially future smartphones, they need proper shielding to absorb harmful radiation and ensure safety.
“Effective shielding is essential to prevent radiation from damaging the body,” Nino emphasized. Typically, materials such as lead or tungsten are integrated into the battery design to provide this protection. However, Nino pointed out that it’s crucial to match the type and amount of shielding with the specific radioactive element used. Increasing the power output requires a higher concentration of the radioactive source, which in turn demands additional shielding. This can become impractical if too much of the device is taken up by protective materials.
Despite the necessity for heavy shielding, nuclear batteries have a significant advantage: they possess an energy density that is ten times higher than conventional lithium-ion batteries, according to Betavolt.
Betavolt is currently researching how to maximize the power output from a single battery. They plan to introduce a 1-watt battery in 2025, which would be closer to the 2–6 watts needed for a standard cell phone. Meanwhile, the company suggests combining multiple batteries in parallel to increase the overall power directed to a device.
Additionally, Betavolt intends to explore the use of various nuclear isotopes in future iterations of their nuclear battery, including strontium-90, promethium-147, and deuterium, which can last between two and thirty years in a device.
=
That’s all in this newsletter; more next month.
You can subscribe to take full advantage of this newsletter. In case you wish to contribute or request an idea that you wish to be covered in the forthcoming issues do get back to me at arunbhatia2005@gmail.com.
Arun Bhatia
SUBSCRIBE: Join my subscription list with 2100+ people for tech updates and get a free copy of my eBook Tech Life- Picks>> Click here.
