Effective Coating of Planar and High Aspect Ratio Microstructure Technology (HARMST) Surfaces for a Tritiated Nitroxide Betavoltaic Nuclear Battery: the Effects of Crystallization Rates
Abstract
Tritiated nitroxide has the capability to surpass all metal tritides as the viable tritium liquid and solid for a nuclear battery. Its specific activity and surface power density are potentially higher than titanium tritide. Tritiated nitroxides other advantages over metal tritides are its various physical states and dissolvability in various common solvents. These advantages led us to the development of a simple deposition procedure when assembling a tritiated nitroxide nuclear battery prototype. The prototype results made it apparent that more investigation was required for further improvement. Thus, the goal of this research was to identify the solvent type and solute concentration (wt/wt ) that produces the thinnest and most uniform coating on planar and high aspect ratio microstructure technology (HARMST) surfaces. Through non-contact methods, a methyl ethyl ketone solution with a solute wt/wt of 14 produced the uniform coating with a majority of its thickness being within the theoretical optimal thickness range. Results proved that coating was able to fill in approximately 98 of the surface. The compound crystal uniformity was nearly identical with two different surfaces: Si rectangular pillar array and uGaN ridge array. There was continuity with all non-contact methods used: optical profilometer, microscope camera, and MATLAB video content analysis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1064907
Entities
People
- David Bigio
- Hakan Berk
- Johnny Russo
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory