Power Revolution: The Everlasting Diamond Battery
December 09, 24
(IDEX Online) - Scientists in the UK have produced the world's first diamond battery.
They say they're a safe and sustainable alternative to lithium ion - and will last for an incredible 5,000 years.
They look like a conventional watch battery, but are much thinner and destined to power pacemakers, hearing aids and other healthcare devices, as well as satellites, deep space missions and remote sensors.
Nuclear fusion experts at the government's UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), working with the University of Bristol, have developed the ever-lasting batteries using lab grown diamonds and an ultra-thin slice of radioactive material, the isotope known as carbon-14.
Neil Fox of the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol said: "Carbon-14 was chosen as a source material because it emits a short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material.
"This would make it dangerous to ingest or touch with your naked skin, but safely held within diamond, no short-range radiation can escape."
The semiconductor properties of the diamond convert the radioactivity into electricity, and it's so hard that it prevents the radioactivity from escaping.
Pic shows a diamond battery (left) with a standard lithium ion battery, courtesy UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)