Scientists Build a Nuclear-Diamond Battery That Could Power Devices for Thousands of Years (livescience.com)
(Saturday December 21, 2024 @11:34PM (EditorDavid)
from the diamonds-are-forever dept.)
- Reference: 0175727935
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/12/22/0048220/scientists-build-a-nuclear-diamond-battery-that-could-power-devices-for-thousands-of-years
- Source link: https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/worlds-1st-nuclear-diamond-battery-of-its-kind-could-power-devices-for-1000s-of-years
The world's first nuclear-powered battery — a diamond with an embedded radioactive isotope — could power small devices for thousands of years, [1]according to scientists at the UK's University of Bristol .
Long-time Slashdot reader [2]fahrbot-bot shared [3]this report from LiveScience :
> The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said.
>
> Scientists from the same university first demonstrated a prototype diamond battery — which used nickel-63 as the radioactive source — in 2017. In the new project, the team developed a battery made of carbon-14 radioactive isotopes embedded in manufactured diamonds. The researchers chose carbon-14 as the source material because it emits short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material — meaning there are no concerns about harm from the radiation. Although carbon-14 would be dangerous to ingest or touch with bare hands, the diamond that holds it prevents any short-range radiation from escaping. "Diamond is the hardest substance known to man; there is literally nothing we could use that could offer more protection," Neil Fox, a professor of materials for energy at the University of Bristol, said in the statement...
>
> A single nuclear-diamond battery containing 0.04 ounce (1 gram) of carbon-14 could deliver 15 joules of electricity per day. For comparison, a standard alkaline AA battery, which weighs about 0.7 ounces (20 grams), has an energy-storage rating of 700 joules per gram. It delivers more power than the nuclear-diamond battery would in the short term, but it would be exhausted within 24 hours. By contrast, the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, which means the battery would take that long to be depleted to 50% power....
>
> [A] spacecraft powered by a carbon-14 diamond battery would [4]reach Alpha Centauri — our nearest stellar neighbor, which is about 4.4 light-years from Earth — long before its power were significantly depleted.
The battery has no moving parts, according to the article. It "requires no maintenance, nor does it have any carbon emissions."
[1] https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/december/diamond-battery-media-release.html
[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~fahrbot-bot
[3] https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/worlds-1st-nuclear-diamond-battery-of-its-kind-could-power-devices-for-1000s-of-years
[4] https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/will-we-ever-reach-alpha-centauri-our-closest-neighboring-star-system
Long-time Slashdot reader [2]fahrbot-bot shared [3]this report from LiveScience :
> The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said.
>
> Scientists from the same university first demonstrated a prototype diamond battery — which used nickel-63 as the radioactive source — in 2017. In the new project, the team developed a battery made of carbon-14 radioactive isotopes embedded in manufactured diamonds. The researchers chose carbon-14 as the source material because it emits short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material — meaning there are no concerns about harm from the radiation. Although carbon-14 would be dangerous to ingest or touch with bare hands, the diamond that holds it prevents any short-range radiation from escaping. "Diamond is the hardest substance known to man; there is literally nothing we could use that could offer more protection," Neil Fox, a professor of materials for energy at the University of Bristol, said in the statement...
>
> A single nuclear-diamond battery containing 0.04 ounce (1 gram) of carbon-14 could deliver 15 joules of electricity per day. For comparison, a standard alkaline AA battery, which weighs about 0.7 ounces (20 grams), has an energy-storage rating of 700 joules per gram. It delivers more power than the nuclear-diamond battery would in the short term, but it would be exhausted within 24 hours. By contrast, the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, which means the battery would take that long to be depleted to 50% power....
>
> [A] spacecraft powered by a carbon-14 diamond battery would [4]reach Alpha Centauri — our nearest stellar neighbor, which is about 4.4 light-years from Earth — long before its power were significantly depleted.
The battery has no moving parts, according to the article. It "requires no maintenance, nor does it have any carbon emissions."
[1] https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/december/diamond-battery-media-release.html
[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~fahrbot-bot
[3] https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/worlds-1st-nuclear-diamond-battery-of-its-kind-could-power-devices-for-1000s-of-years
[4] https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/will-we-ever-reach-alpha-centauri-our-closest-neighboring-star-system
Scientists report (Score:2)
by Bodhammer ( 559311 )
The technology could be available in 5-10 years.
I think this was mentioned a few years ago... (Score:2)
by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 )
I remember this being mentioned a while back. It seems improved, with it almost 1/50 the power of a conventional battery per gram. However, for low voltage applications, where a few millivolts is good enough, perhaps as a watchdog circuit to wake everything up if a sensor detects a threshold, this would be quite useful. Or maybe even scale it up a bit more, and it could be used for a low power radio (think AirTag) to protect some item indefinitely.
Overall, a promising technology. I'm glad this has been
Uh huh (Score:2)
"Devices" as in what? This battery probably gives femtoamps. And we get excited when a radio floating in space lasts 50 years, we have zero experience building electrical devices that last thousands of years.
And I have yet to see any excitement for life extension, so using a time span of thousands of years appeals to who?
Re: (Score:2)
> "Devices" as in what? This battery probably gives femtoamps. And we get excited when a radio floating in space lasts 50 years, we have zero experience building electrical devices that last thousands of years. And I have yet to see any excitement for life extension, so using a time span of thousands of years appeals to who?
A joule is a watt second so it can supply 15 watt seconds averaged over a day or 170 microwatts continuously if that tidbit is correct. Amps is just flow, makes for improper comparison when batteries have different voltage ranges. with no voltage there is no actual power, just like with voltage and no flow. This makes for an excellent power for memory or ultra low power sensors and processors.