Highly Enriched Nickel‐63 Radionuclide for β‐Voltaic Nuclear Batteries

Abstract

The requirements for nickel‐63 (Ni‐63) in β‐voltaic nuclear batteries were analyzed. For commercial use, the degree of Ni‐63 enrichment should in the range of 70–90 % instead of the currently available commercial product (18–20 % enrichment). Such a significant increase in the enrichment level would improve the energy conversion efficiency of the β‐particles by ten times. An industrial scheme for production of highly enriched Ni‐63 is proposed.

Development of nuclear microbattery prototype based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes

“…Even for 3% collection efficiency, the fabricated microbattery prototype provides up to 4 μW cm −2 power density using pure 147 Pm isotope without any coatings. However, the absence of the industrial process for highly enriched 147 Pm isotope production (i.e., available for 63 Ni ) results in very high cost for real applications.…”

Electron-hole pair creation and conversion efficiency in radioisotope microbatteries

“…The availability of highly enriched 63 Ni would enable even greater power outputs: at 100 % enrichment (5.36 μW cm -2 incident on the converter), the battery would output 2.42 μW cm -2 . Although production of isotopically-pure 100 % enriched 63 Ni is still considered an expensive and challenging task, a scheme was proposed recently to enrich 63 Ni content to 80-90 % [41].…”