Hey there, future scientists! 🌟 Have you ever wished your gadgets could run forever without needing a charge? Well, guess what? A company in the Chinese mainland has taken a big step toward making that happen! 🚀
Introducing Zhulong-1: The Ultra-Long-Lasting Battery 🐉🔋
A team at Wuxi Beita Pharmatech Co., Ltd., along with researchers from Northwest Normal University, have created a special battery called Zhulong-1. But this isn’t just any battery—it’s powered by something called carbon-14 (C-14), which is a type of nuclear energy. Don’t worry, it’s safe! 😊
Wait, What’s a Nuclear Battery? 🤔
Nuclear batteries turn energy from tiny particles, called radioactive decay, into electricity. Unlike the batteries in your toys or phones that use chemicals, nuclear batteries can last a super long time! Think thousands of years long! 😲
How Does Zhulong-1 Work? ⚙️
Zhulong-1 uses C-14, which has a half-life of 5,730 years. That means it can keep releasing energy for a really, really long time. The battery pairs C-14 with a special material called silicon-carbide (SiC). As C-14 gives off tiny particles, they interact with the SiC to produce electricity. It’s like a tiny power plant in a battery! 🔄
Why Is This So Cool? 😎
The team showed that Zhulong-1 could power an LED light for nearly four months nonstop, flashing over 35,000 times! They even used it to send signals with a Bluetooth chip. Imagine devices that never run out of power! 💡📶
Where Could We Use These Batteries? 🌍🌌
These amazing batteries could be used in places where it’s hard to change batteries, like deep in the ocean, in Antarctica, or even on the moon and Mars! 🌊❄️🌕🚀 They could also power medical devices inside our bodies, like pacemakers, so they never need a battery change. 🏥❤️
What’s Next? 🚀
The team is already working on Zhulong-2, which they hope to make as small as a coin! They plan to launch it by the end of this year or early next year. Imagine all the cool things we could do with tiny, super-long-lasting batteries! 🔋✨
So, keep dreaming big, and maybe one day you’ll invent something that changes the world too! 🧪🌟
Reference(s):
Chinese company develops nuclear battery with ultra-long lifespan
cgtn.com
