Laptop battery with a 20yr charge?

[Loyal Rogue]

Such a simple and brilliant application of existing technologies.

Combine a thin photovoltaic sheet with a thin sheet of luminescent material.
Sandwich multiple layers of those sheets together and you get a continuous power fuel cell.

http://pesn.com/2008/10/22/9501495_L...y_Power_Cells/

Imagine a laptop or cell phone battery that never has to be recharged. Imagine an electric vehicle that can drive non-stop with no need to recharge. Imagine a generator in your garage that requires no fuel, essentially no maintenance, and provides enough power for all your electrical needs.

Such a day may not be far away with the advent of a marriage of two energy technologies. Simply join solar thin film technology that turns photons into electrons together with the luminescent microspheres by MPK Co. to produces continuous photons, and you have continuous electricity generation.

Well…, not exactly “continuous”, because the LitroSphere™ photon output rate very gradually diminishes over time, but we’re talking over many years, like 20, rather than hours. But unlike batteries, there is no “off” switch for these betavoltatic devices. They just generate electricity at a fixed rate, and they keep on going, and going, and going, and going – without any waste byproduct.

--------------------------

The combining these two technologies – the thin-film solar and the LitroSpheres™ – would entail very thin, repeated layers of each so that a large number of stacked sets would comprise a significant power density. They call these versatile hybrid species, Litroenergy Power Cells, which can be scaled from micro applications to large utilities.

How long will the wait be until we see this on the market? According to Steve Stark, Director of Marketing for MPK, product could be rolling out of manufacturing plants in as little as three months from now, depending on financing. The technology and players are already in place, and the independent testing of this combination will be completed in a few weeks. The results from MPK’s in-house testing have been very encouraging. “There is a lot going on behind the scenes that I can not disclose at this time, but it is huge” said Stark.

[koolbabs2000]

Sounds promising !

[hurricaneone]

A lot of these ideas usually have holes so large you can drive a Mack truck through them - but this one doesn't.

Am I missing something key here, or is this actually a good idea that works?

[ihoss.com]

So their using a decaying radioactive hydrogen to excite phosphor to produce light, and then a solar panel to convert the light into electricity. This is certainly doable, I'm just skeptical as to how efficient it is. Every step will lose some energy, so the output will probably be about 70% of the energy released by the decaying tritium. According to Wikipedia, tritium releases an electron and an electron anti neutrino. When the electron collide with phosphor, it results in a photon being released (this is similar to how your TV works, and exactly how the glowing dial on your watch works).

Supposed the electron released can be converted into light and then back into electricity again with zero loss, the whole battery will produce 1 electrons worth of energy for every tritium decaying. Since it has a half life of 12 years, you will need
(12*365*24*60*60)/(6.0E23/6.24E18) * 2
= 7871.3856 ~= 8 kg of tritium to produce 1amp of electricity for 12 years. This does not include the weight of phosphor, or the weight of the solar cell. My laptop battery produces (55W/10V ) 5.5amp of electricity, so I need at least a 44kg laptop battery for this to be useful.

So while this would definitely work, I doubt it will be useful for laptop and mobile batteries any time soon.

[WannaBe_80z]

Some big company will buy the technology and then "prove" that there is some massive flaw.

[FlashLackey]

Leave it to ihoss to squash our dreams with math.

Could cost or durability be an issue as well?

[ihoss.com]

Cost could probably be a problem. According to the Wikipedia article, only 400g of Tritium is consumed every year, and there is a worldwide stock of 75kg. So production costs are probably high.

[silverx2]

i dont see the problem with an 80lb battery


/flex

[mneil]

damnit! These always get me excited.

[jAQUAN]

damnit! These always get me excited.

They always make me realize there's no money in the cure and that capitalism sucks in a lot of ways.

[mneil]

Even if I could afford one I don't think I'd buy it anyway if it meant carrying around a 44kg laptop for the next 12 or so years. I'd bet they'd get more powerful and smaller as time went on and by year 3 or so of owning my battery I'd be kicking myself for not waiting. Guess that means I'm no early adopter...

[Frets]

using a decaying radioactive hydrogen

Boy that sounds safe. I wonder if Sony will build the batteries in Hiroshima.

[WannaBe_80z]

wow.

[silverx2]

the key here is the 12 year battery life. Who keeps a laptop for 12 years and doesnt replace the battery? Find a way to make the stuff burn for more over a shorter amount of time.

[ihoss.com]

the key here is the 12 year battery life. Who keeps a laptop for 12 years and doesnt replace the battery? Find a way to make the stuff burn for more over a shorter amount of time.

That is probably what the article mixed up the most. If you reduce the amount of mass (so it weighs less) then it will last shorter. So you could probably get a battery to weigh 5kg and it would last a year or two.

[FlashLackey]

For $30,000.

[jAQUAN]

you'll have to lease them from the power company. That industry is not going away quietly.

[Googooboyy]

Imagine a no-need-to-recharge handphone/mp3 player thats as large as your toaster. Woo.

[gerbick]

Imagine a no-need-to-recharge handphone/mp3 player thats as large as your toaster. Woo.

sounds like my second year senior portfolio project... the 8-track walkman.

[koolbabs2000]

It will be a good to use this technology for car batteries.