U.S. Develops Button Photovoltaic Cells Four Times As Long as Lithium Batteries

Recently, U.S. scientists have developed a new method to create a coin cell battery that is fueled by butane. Its operating time is four times that of a lithium-ion battery of the same weight. When electricity is exhausted, only a small amount of new fuel is added. The battery can be charged immediately. They also produced another battery, which was provided with a heat source by the decay of a radioactive isotope. It can continue to generate electricity for 30 years without requiring fuel or maintenance. It is expected to become an ideal power source for long-time space missions.

Ian Selanowitz, an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Institute of Nuclear Nanotechnology (ISN), said that tungsten is the main raw material for new batteries and etched billions of nanometer-sized pits on the surface of tungsten. When tungsten absorbs heat, regardless of whether the heat comes from the sun, hydrocarbon fuels, decaying radioactive isotopes, or other heat sources, it emits bright light, and the emission spectrum constantly changes because each pit acts like a resonator, releasing specific Wavelength light waves.

The data provided by the US Department of Energy's Information Management Center shows that 92% of the energy used today requires the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy and then into electrical energy. However, existing mechanical energy systems are relatively inefficient and cannot be reduced in size for use in sensors, smart phones, or medical monitoring devices.