Miniature nuclear batteries that ENOUGH FOR THE YEARS
American researchers from Cornell University managed to create a new type of electric current sources based on radioactive isotopes. Scope of these batteries can be very wide - from medicine and chemical analysis to space research and defense purposes.
A new source of electricity consists of a copper plate rigidly fixed at one end, and a thin strip of foil of radioactive nickel-63. The foil is placed under the copper plate at a short distance. The entire system is under vacuum. In the decay of a radioactive isotope allocated beta particles (electrons), they are deposited on a copper plate, which acquires a negative charge. Nickel foil, losing electrons, in contrast, is positively charged.
Since copper and nickel having opposite charges, the plate and the foil strip are attracted to each other and finally contact. At this point, the circuit current flows, the charges on the copper foil of platinum and nickel-63 are aligned, and between copper and nickel reappears interval. Then the cycle repeats again.
In fact, the new power source is not simply nuclear battery (such devices are known for several decades) and full microelectromechanical system (MEMS), capable of transforming the energy of radioactive decay is not only light, but also mechanical performance. This feature allows the use of a new development in the development of miniature mechanical devices of different purposes. Duration of operation of such devices can reach tens of years.
The half-life of nickel-63 over one hundred years, and the life of the new battery, according to the calculations of its creators, about half as much.
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