Scientists and engineers from the University of Bristol and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and have successfully created the world’s first carbon-14 diamond battery.
This new type of battery has the potential to power devices for thousands of years, making it an incredibly long-lasting energy source.
The battery leverages the radioactive isotope, carbon-14, known for its use in radiocarbon dating, to produce a diamond battery.
Several game-changing applications are possible. Bio-compatible diamond batteries can be used in medical devices like ocular implants, hearing aids, and pacemakers, minimising the need for replacements and distress to patients.
Diamond batteries could also be used in extreme environments – both in space and on earth – where it is not practical to replace conventional batteries. The batteries could power active radio frequency (RF) tags where there is a need to identify and track devices either on earth or in space, such as spacecraft or payloads, for decades at a time, thus reducing costs and extending operational lifespan.
Professor Tom Scott, Professor in Materials at the University of Bristol, said: “Our micropower technology can support a whole range of important applications from space technologies and security devices through to medical implants. We're excited to be able to explore all of these possibilities, working with partners in industry and research, over the next few years.”
The carbon-14 diamond battery works by using the radioactive decay of carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,700 years, to generate low levels of power. It functions similarly to solar panels, which convert light into electricity, but instead of using light particles (photons), they capture fast-moving electrons from within the diamond structure.
“Diamond batteries offer a safe, sustainable way to provide continuous microwatt levels of power. They are an emerging technology that use a manufactured diamond to safely encase small amounts of carbon-14,” said Sarah Clark, Director of Tritium Fuel Cycle at UKAEA.
A team of scientists and engineers from both organisations worked together to build a plasma deposition rig, a specialised apparatus used for growing the diamond at UKAEA’s Culham Campus.
This development is the result, in part, of UKAEA’s work on fusion energy.
The expertise gained in fusion research is helping to accelerate innovation in related technologies.
Ithirahad on September 17th, 2025 at 01:51 UTC »
Why do these headlines keep cropping up? This is a betavoltaic system. It does not "die" for up to several millennia, but in the meantime it produces so little current that it is essentially not noticeable (unless you specialize in low-power electronics, maybe). It has some applications in networked sensing for weather and such, but it shall not power a phone or a car. The energy simply is not there.
...Indeed, you would not want it to be there. The amount of energy required to provide that sort of output for thousands of years would, by physical necessity, produce a bomb capable of deleting a large island if it were packed into a space small enough to fit inside either of those applications.
There is no gee-whiz solution to all of our energy logistics. Fusion may eventually solve the production side of things, but storage and vehicles will use bulky batteries or chemical fuels for the foreseeable future, unless some entirely new wing of physics is suddenly discovered. (That eventuality seems exceedingly unlikely, and not for lack of anyone looking.)
CDN-Social-Democrat on September 17th, 2025 at 01:30 UTC »
I am not very familiar with this technology but I am familiar with some other developments in the area of battery technology.
This is a HUGE area of the future.
Solid-state batteries, sodium-ion batteries, BESS/BEGS system advancements, and so forth.
You couple this with the advancements in solar like multijunction solar (tandem solar) and we start seeing some very exciting compounding realities.
This is the place we should be focusing a lot of research and development as whoever leads is going to be leading the world in the future.
Guess who is being smart - China.
This is why you don't allow the fossil fuel industry to dominate politics..
ObviouslyTriggered on September 17th, 2025 at 01:13 UTC »
These batteries produce about 10 Joules per day per gram, so you need a battery that weights about 9kg to power a 1W LED constantly.
Outside of extremely niche uses these batteries won't change anything in your day to day life.