An atomic battery, nuclear battery, radioisotope battery or radioisotope generator uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Like a nuclear reactor, it generates electricity from nuclear energy, but it differs by not using a chain reaction.
Beyond electrochemical energy storage devices, recent research studies have also focused on nuclear diamond batteries . Nuclear batteries make use of the energy from the rapid decay of radioactive isotopes to generate electricity. The most common use of nuclear batteries is in cardiac pacemakers .
Nuclear batteries, also referred to as the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), has been used in space exploration for over four decades (Fig. 8). Nuclear batteries can provide power and heat for spacecraft by converting heat generated by natural radioactive decay into electricity.
(Courtesy of NASA) The public is familiar with nuclear energy in nuclear power plants but not in batteries. Nuclear batteries are in fact closer to nuclear power plants than traditional batteries in that they use radioactivity to generate power instead of storing an amount of charge.
Nuclear batteries have attracted the interest of researchers since the early 1900s (Moseley and Harling, 1913) and continue to do so because of one factor: the potential for a long battery lifetime.
A nuclear battery is composed of layers of materials. You might find these chapters and articles relevant to this topic. Sandeep Kumar, ... Ki-Hyun Kim, in Carbon, 2019 Beyond electrochemical energy storage devices, recent research studies have also focused on nuclear diamond batteries .
OverviewThermal conversionNon-thermal conversionPacemakersRadioisotopes usedMicro-batteriesSee alsoExternal links
An atomic battery, nuclear battery, radioisotope battery or radioisotope generator uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Like a nuclear reactor, it generates electricity from nuclear energy, but it differs by not using a chain reaction. Although commonly called batteries, atomic batteries are technically not electrochemical and cannot be charged or recharged. Although they are very costly, they have extremely long lives and high energy density, …