Diamond Batteries!

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**whembly**

Really cool tech!
'Diamond-age' of power generation as nuclear batteries developed

New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The development could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life.

This innovative method for radioactive energy was presented at the Cabot Institute's sold-out annual lecture - 'Ideas to change the world'- on Friday, 25 November.

Unlike the majority of electricity-generation technologies, which use energy to move a magnet through a coil of wire to generate a current, the man-made diamond is able to produce a charge simply by being placed in close proximity to a radioactive source.

Tom Scott, Professor in Materials in the University's Interface Analysis Centre and a member of the Cabot Institute, said: "There are no moving parts involved, no emissions generated and no maintenance required, just direct electricity generation. By encapsulating radioactive material inside diamonds, we turn a long-term problem of nuclear waste into a nuclear-powered battery and a long-term supply of clean energy."

The team have demonstrated a prototype 'diamond battery' using Nickel-63 as the radiation source. However, they are now working to significantly improve efficiency by utilising carbon-14, a radioactive version of carbon, which is generated in graphite blocks used to moderate the reaction in nuclear power plants. Research by academics at Bristol has shown that the radioactive carbon-14 is concentrated at the surface of these blocks, making it possible to process it to remove the majority of the radioactive material. The extracted carbon-14 is then incorporated into a diamond to produce a nuclear-powered battery.

The UK currently holds almost 95,000 tonnes of graphite blocks and by extracting carbon-14 from them, their radioactivity decreases, reducing the cost and challenge of safely storing this nuclear waste.

Dr Neil Fox from the School of Chemistry explained: "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. In fact, diamond is the hardest substance known to man, there is literally nothing we could use that could offer more protection."

Despite their low-power, relative to current battery technologies, the life-time of these diamond batteries could revolutionise the powering of devices over long timescales. Using carbon-14 the battery would take 5,730 years to reach 50 per cent power, which is about as long as human civilization has existed.

Professor Scott added: "We envision these batteries to be used in situations where it is not feasible to charge or replace conventional batteries. Obvious applications would be in low-power electrical devices where long life of the energy source is needed, such as pacemakers, satellites, high-altitude drones or even spacecraft.

"There are so many possible uses that we're asking the public to come up with suggestions of how they would utilise this technology by using #diamondbattery."

Provided by: University of Bristol

Check the link for video.

For something that portable... SPACE MARINE POWER GENERATOR??!?!?

**Co'tor Shas**

Clever. Getting rid of nuclear waste and making more power at the same time. I certainly hope this succeeds.

**Ketara**

What an amazing idea. So....what's the downside? There always is one....

**Silent Puffin?**

Ketara wrote:
What an amazing idea. So....what's the downside? There always is one....

I would imagine that these would be quite expensive and potentially difficult to make.

**Kilkrazy**

One imagines the downside is the cost of making artificial diamonds filled with radioactive waste, plus the slow rate the batteries charge up.

**malamis**

Ketara wrote:
What an amazing idea. So....what's the downside? There always is one....

The De Beers Diamond Monopoly getting their legal mits on it.

**Minx**

Ketara wrote:
What an amazing idea. So....what's the downside? There always is one....

The power output is quite low and might just be enough for a pacemaker* at high conversion efficiency. But at least you don't need to change it anymore so a somewhat larger/heavier battery might be feasible.

* I assumed 10 µW power consumption for the pacemaker and 10g for the conventional battery.
Caveat: it's quite possible i missed a few orders of magnitude

Edit: Yeah, i somehow missed three orders of magnitude increasing the maximum theoretical specific power output to 1.6 mW / g. With 1-10% efficiency this could be a very viable alternative to usual pacemaker batteries.

There are some commercial off-the-shelf Tritium filled "batteries" (Betavoltaics) that work kinda similar to this diamond encased carbon thing with less power output though.
Harnessing low frequency vibrations is another interesting method for miniature power sources btw.

**Kilkrazy**

It seems like a very interesting discovery of basic blue skies research, needing a lot of development and engineering to turn it into a viable technology. Much science works that way.

**BigWaaagh**

Ketara wrote:
What an amazing idea. So....what's the downside? There always is one....

And now, the rise of Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze!

**Smacks**

While it's interesting, I think it's going to be difficult to find a niche where solar power, and long life lithium batteries aren't good enough (and probably a lot cheaper/safer). We've already had nuclear powered pacemakers, but they were supplanted by lithium batteries, as pacemakers still need periodic maintenance, and it can be advantageous to change them every once in a while as the technology progresses. I think I've got a solar powered calculator somewhere that my father bought in the 1970s... still works perfectly, though the gadget itself has become somewhat redundant in a world of smart phones.

I'm certain this will have applications, but unless the power output can be increased, I imagine they will be a lot fewer than you might first anticipate.

**Herzlos**

Might be useful in places like mines or underwater.

It's potentially more of a solution to "how do we store nuclear waste?" than "how do we get long life, low power batteries?". If we are making them much safer, the power output is just a bonus; presumably whilst we're at the µW or mW range, a cluster of a few hundred/thousand of these may be able to power things like Arctic weather stations quite happily for their lifetime.

**jhe90**

Its a matter of refinement and adaption.

The base idea is working but its just making the tech viable.

**NinthMusketeer**

"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

"What's the downside?"

"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

**jhe90**

NinthMusketeer wrote:
"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

"What's the downside?"

"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

Man made.
Its industrial sort.

**Desubot**

Ketara wrote:
What an amazing idea. So....what's the downside? There always is one....

Besides potential nuclear materials being all over the place in battery powered things?

obviously not as big a deal for military instillation or in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

but hospital back up generators, or cars would give quick access for bad guys to make dirty bombs.

well at least if they proceed to commercialize it

**whembly**

jhe90 wrote:
NinthMusketeer wrote:
"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

"What's the downside?"

"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

Man made.
Its industrial sort.

This... industrial diamonds (aka 'black diamonds') are relatively cheap, particularly in tooled bits.

**Cothonian**

This is awesome.

**NinthMusketeer**

whembly wrote:
jhe90 wrote:
NinthMusketeer wrote:
"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

"What's the downside?"

"We have discovered a way to generate energy from radioactive waste using diamonds!"

Man made.
Its industrial sort.

This... industrial diamonds (aka 'black diamonds') are relatively cheap, particularly in tooled bits.

A fair point and perhaps I should have elaborated but my statement was mainly for humor. Industrial diamonds are cheap relative to regular diamonds, but that isn't saying much. Plus the article seems to reference these being made specifically from radioactive carbon that must be specially harvested--I doubt they will be as cheaply made as run-of-the-mill varieties. But again, mainly for humor and overstating the obvious.