Researchers have demonstrated a penny-sized “nuclear battery” that produces energy from the decay of radioisotopes.

As radioactive substances decay, they release charged particles that when properly harvested can create an electrical current.

Nuclear batteries have been in use for military and aerospace applications, but are typically far larger.

The University of Missouri team says that the batteries hold a million times as much charge as standard batteries.

They have developed it in an attempt to scale down power sources for the tiny devices that fall under the category of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (Mems and Nems).

The means to power such devices has been a subject of study as vigorous as the development of the devices themselves.

Liquid solution

Nuclear batteries are an attractive proposition for many applications because the isotopes that power them can provide a useful amount of current for phenomenally long times – up to hundreds of years or more.

Read more . . .

Related articles by Zemanta

• Researchers creating a nuclear powered battery (crunchgear.com)
• Researchers create smaller and more efficient nuclear battery (scienceblog.com)
• Nuclear Batteries Solve The Shrinking Gadget Conundrum [Batteries] (gizmodo.com)

Related posts:

1. Tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells could revolutionize solar power
2. A New Life for Old Batteries!
3. Uncertain Choices in Batteries
4. Nanotech Batteries For A New Energy Future
5. Carbon nanotubes used to make batteries from fabrics

Tags: gadget, Innovation, mems, nano, nuclear batteries, nuclear battery, power sources, radioactive substances, radioisotopes, standard batteries, tiny devices

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under BBC, Cutting-edge Research, Innovation, Lifespan Products, Nanotech, Project Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.