The Best Candidate for OU Prize

[Xaero_Vincent]

Its sounds like a good idea but the power difference would be too great to be accepted. Nuclear batteries might be a better option and forget the solar panel.

155 Lumens is what is expected from a typical 20 watt incandescent light bulb. About 683 lumens will equal 1 watt of light power. So the power output from the array of green glowing tritium vials will produce less than 1/4 of a watt. The most efficient commercial solar panel might be 20% so electrical power produced would only be 20% of that 1/4 of a watt.

[onthecuttingedge2005]

to continue furthering efficiency and technology of this topic.

these are little 'Gases' Tritium Keychains, 'Liquid' Tritium is much brighter when doped with Phosphors and it can get even brighter if I used 32Si particles in the device instead of Tritium, 32Si emits 12 times more beta particles than Tritium and would still be in the safe range for light weight plastic shielding. these little gasesous beta lights are about as bright as a small LED light when compared.

if you look at these simple gas tritium beta lights and then increase the illumination 12 times the lumen's then this would be comparable to gaseous 32Si targeting a phosphor coat instead of Tritium.

with 32Si doped with Phosphor I could make self powered semiconductors that would last +160 years with no batteries needed. they would utilize their own Beta-(Electrons) as a primary current source and convert light directly to electricity as a secondary current source.

there is "real" usable energy for work here otherwise these Tritium Beta Lights wouldn't function.

[onthecuttingedge2005]

article on the new 30 year Beta Battery.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-betavoltaic-10.1.html

the above Semiconductor Beta Battery uses Tritium for doping the pourous Silicon.

I could make it better using 32Si(B-) instead of 28Si(stable), using P doped 32Si I could generate 12 times the current and it will last 160 plus years continuously without recharging. I could also increase surface area of the 32Si to increase potential energy density.

here is some extra info from wiki on the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betavoltaics

[Xaero_Vincent]

I never heard of 32Si being used for betavoltaic lighting but if it beta decays then it will work if it were coated with phosphor. How dangerous is the radioactive emissions though? Radium was used before tritium and light emitted from it would last well over 3000 years (half-life is 1600 years) but it caused bone cancer and therefore most countries banned its use for this purpose.

Understand that tritium is among the least dangerous radioactive isotopes and even so there is a import ban on it in the USA. 12x more light output might be enough for a solar panel (even though its still far less than the sun) but it would only make sense for a high-efficiency multi-junction panel with hybrid Sun use to make the idea cost effective. Multi-junction would be necessary so that it can be tuned for the light wavelength of the 32Si light emission and also the Sun's visible wavelengths for daytime use.

[Xaero_Vincent]

I was looking over your list of pure beta emitting materials...

Why not try rubidium-87?

* 49 billion year half-life
* 2nd most abundant naturally occuring isotope of rubidium (27.8%) and the element is the 23rd most abundant on Earth
* Decays into stable isotope strontium-87
* Slightly higher energy density than silicon-32 but still weak enough that emissions can be contained in a thick plastic shell.

The 49 billion half-life doesn't mean that after another 49 billion years that the radioactive decay is finished. Oh no sir... after another 49 billion years, 25% of the material will remain and following yet another 49 billion years later--12.5% will remain.

So used as a betavoltaic light or battery source, it will be enough to last at least 100 billion years and wont be completely "discharged" or dimmed until the death of the Universe.

I think I just might have grey hair by then...