Micronuclear battery based on a coalescent energy transducer | Nature

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Micronuclear batteries harness energy from the radioactive decay of radioisotopes to generate electricity on a small scale, typically in the nanowatt or microwatt range1,2. Contrary to chemical batteries, the longevity of a micronuclear battery is tied to the half-life of the used radioisotope, enabling operational lifetimes that can span several decades3. Furthermore, the radioactive decay remains unaffected by environmental factors such as temperature, pressure and magnetic fields, making the micronuclear battery an enduring and reliable power source in scenarios in which conventional batteries prove impractical or challenging to replace4. Common radioisotopes of americium (241Am and 243Am) are α-decay emitters with half-lives longer than hundreds of years. Severe self-adsorption in traditional architectures of micronuclear batteries impedes high-efficiency α-decay energy conversion, making the development of α-radioisotope micronuclear batteries challenging5,6. Here we propose a micronuclear battery architecture that includes a coalescent energy transducer by incorporating 243Am into a luminescent lanthanide coordination polymer. This couples radioisotopes with energy transducers at the molecular level, resulting in an 8,000-fold enhancement in energy conversion efficiency from α decay energy to sustained autoluminescence compared with that of conventional architectures. When implemented in conjunction with a photovoltaic cell that translates autoluminescence into electricity, a new type of radiophotovoltaic micronuclear battery with a total power conversion efficiency of 0.889% and a power per activity of 139 microwatts per curie (μW Ci−1) is obtained.

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All the data presented in this work are fully available from the corresponding authors. Source data for Figs. 2–4 are provided in the Supplementary Source Data. The crystallographic data have been deposited at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre with numbers 2330767, 2330769, 2330771, 2331023, 2331108 and 2331024. These data can be obtained free of charge from the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre at http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/data_request/cif. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code source data for all simulations in this work are provided as Supplementary Source Code, with all relevant information for reproduction described in the text and supplementary materials.

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We acknowledge funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22425061, 22222606, 22206143 and 22227809), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20211546) and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE. We thank R. Wang of Soochow University and Y. Han of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology for their advice in improving the paper. We also acknowledge R. Liu, Z. Liu and Y. Wang at Soochow University for their suggestions on photovoltaic cell preparation.

These authors contributed equally: Kai Li, Congchong Yan, Junren Wang

State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

Kai Li, Congchong Yan, Junren Wang, Kun Zhu, Yugang Zhang, Yuchen Yin, Liwei Cheng, Liang Sun, Yumin Wang, Hailong Zhang, Ying Sun, Zhifang Chai, Yaxing Wang & Shuao Wang

Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

Junjun Guo, Guozheng Shi, Jianyu Yuan & Wanli Ma

Xi’an Research Institute of High Technology, Xi’an, China

Guoxun Ji

Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi’an, China

Xiaoping Ouyang

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, China

Xiaoping Ouyang

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S.W., Yaxing Wang and X.O. conceived and supervised the project. K.L. designed the experiment and participated in the entire project. J.W., Y.Z., H.Z. and Y.S. performed the crystal growth and structural determination. J.G., G.S., J.Y. and W.M. carried out the photovoltaic cell fabrication experiment. C.Y., K.Z., Y.Y. and L.S. performed the Monte Carlo simulation. L.C. and Yumin Wang performed the autoluminescent property measurements. K.L. and G.J. determined the electrical characteristics of the nuclear battery. Z.C. aided in the discussion. S.W., Yaxing Wang and K.L. prepared the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Correspondence to Yaxing Wang, Xiaoping Ouyang or Shuao Wang.

S.W., Yaxing Wang, K.L. and Soochow University have filed a patent on the presenting results. The other authors declare no competing interests.

Nature thanks Eric Lukosi, Robert Surbella and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.

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This file includes Supplementary Figs. 1–26 and Supplementary Tables 1–8.

Supplementary crystallographic information files with CCDC deposit numbers 2330767, 2330769, 2330771, 2331023, 2331108 and 2331024.

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Li, K., Yan, C., Wang, J. et al. Micronuclear battery based on a coalescent energy transducer. Nature 633, 811–815 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07933-9

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Received: 15 June 2023

Accepted: 08 August 2024

Published: 18 September 2024

Issue Date: 26 September 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07933-9

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