Posted on 01/18/2024 1:07:17 PM PST by Jonty30
China's Betavolt New Energy Technology has unveiled a new modular nuclear battery that uses a combination of a nickel-63 (⁶³Ni) radioactive isotope and a 4th-generation diamond semiconductor and can power a device for 50 years.
Nuclear batteries may sound like something super-advanced, but they've been around in one form or another since the early 1950s. Most of these are what are called radio-thermal generators, which turn the heat from decaying radioactive elements into electricity by some sort of thermocouple or a Stirling engine.
In 2016, a new principle was introduced, which uses diamond layers doped with radioactive isotopes – in the case of the first attempt, carbon-14 (¹⁴C). The idea is to select an isotope that releases Beta (β⁻) particles, which are essentially high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons. When these are released, the diamond matrix acts as a semiconductor to generate an electric
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
I imagine the cost of the diamond could be huge if it were used in anything of any size.
A link to a Honda commercial...?
If I understand, the diamond is lab grown and chemically deposited on the substrate.
Diamond material is being used to make semiconductors. The cost for that material is extremely high. Synthetically produced diamond material for semiconductor research has a price tag about 10,000 times that of silicon. Another issue is the small size of diamond wafers, with the largest commercially available size smaller than 10 square millimeters. Doping the material using ion implantation is difficult, and the material’s charge-carrier activation becomes less efficient at room temperature.
Doesn’t say how much it costs. Just guessing but I expect it costs more than $9.99 or $99.99 or $999.99, maybe less than $9999.99.
Yes, it can generate an electric current.
“So can a potato.”
You can shove a copper cathode and a graphite or zinc anode in the dirt about an inch apart out in your yard, wet it with some water, and get almost 2 volts. Works best in high alkali soils of course.
Your point?
Do you think spraying water on that RORO was doing anything useful? If so, how?
At most it lowered the temperature. Other than that, probably nothing.
Actually, I did not intend the double entendre! LOL myself.
Precisely. And that RORO was a write off either way.
Like I said, . . .
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