Much more effective than analogues. Scientists have created a tiny atomic battery

A group of physicists and engineers from China has developed a unique miniature atomic battery, which, according to them, is 8000 times more efficient than existing analogues.

< p>This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature.

For many years, researchers have been trying to create tiny nuclear power units that could provide energy for various devices – from mobile phones to robots and cars. However, the development of such technologies has been limited due to the potential danger associated with nuclear materials.

One of the ways to solve this problem — use of batteries that are charged at the expense of nuclear material. Such devices were usually small to minimize the use of radioactive materials, but this also limited the amount of energy they could produce. Moreover, such batteries were extremely inefficient.

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However, Chinese scientists proposed a new solution. They created a device by placing americium in a crystal, which, under the influence of alpha particles, begins to emit green light. This light is converted into electricity with the photoelectric element. For safety, the battery was placed in a quartz cell, which prevents the leakage of radiation. Tests have shown that the device is capable of operating for decades due to the long half-life of americium, which is 7380 years. Battery materials will break down much earlier. Although the device is extremely efficient, it produces a small amount of energy: it would take 40 billion of these batteries to power a single 60-watt light bulb.

Despite this, scientists believe that further developments could lead to the creation miniature energy sources for use in devices working in remote and hard-to-reach places, for example, in space.