Dr. Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Missouri, has developed a very small nuclear battery.
The present model is three quarters of an inch square and one sixteenth of an inch thick. The power source is a radio isotope. The battery provides six orders of magnitude more energy than chemical batteries. The "nuclear" material is very safe when used properly.
Dr. Kwon used a liquid semiconductor to prevent damage to a solid semiconductor by the radiation from the radioisotope.
Kwon is working with J. David Robertson, chemistry professor and associate director of the MU Research Reactor. The researchers hope to make their battery smaller, thinner than a human hair, lighter, and more powerful.
Kwons research has been published in the Journal of Applied Physics Letters and Journal of
Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry. In addition, last June, he received an "outstanding paper"
award for his research on nuclear batteries at the IEEE International Conference on Solid-State
Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems in Denver (Transducers 2009).
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2009/1007-mu-researchers-create-smaller-and-more-efficient-nuclear-battery/
http://ceramics.org/ceramictechtoday/
http://ceramics.org/ceramictechtoday/tag/jae-kwon/
http://jap.aip.org/
http://engineering.missouri.edu/people/faculty/kwonj/index.php
http://engineering.missouri.edu/news/stories/2009/nuclear-battery-outstanding-at-conference/index.php
Photos courtesy of Kelsey Jackson University of Missouri .
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