The successful development of high efficiency thermionic power generators will improve energy conversion efficiency, specific power, and life time of RTGs power supply system, which will benefit to the W-MW power supply systems for NASA deep space exploration. They can be also integrated with nuclear power system to convert nuclear energy to electricity for space applications.
Several commercial opportunities are opened-up with high efficiency thermionic power generator, that including concentrating solar power generator system and waste heat harvesting system. The technique of nanostructured emitter with low effective work function can be applied in electron emission devices such as field emission displays and vacuum microelectronic devices.
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