'Eternal Battery': Scientists Discover Technology That Could Change Everything

© National Cancer Institute

One of the greatest challenges of our time is based on a technology, that of batteries. If the 20th century was that of production (of energy), the 21st is undoubtedly that of conservation. In order to answer this central question, researchers from the University of Bristol and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) have just created the first battery made of carbon 14 diamond.

According to scientists' calculations, such a battery could operate for thousands of years. It draws its energy from the decay of carbon-14, a radioactive isotope known in the archaeological world for its dating powers.

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A low power battery

To have such a lifespan, the diamond battery cannot provide crazy energy power. The decay of carbon 14, stable for 5,700 years, can only provide a few microwatts. We are talking about barely 15J per day. That is 0.004,167 Wh/day. For comparison, a light bulb consumes 54 kJ in one hour.

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There is talk of using these batteries of the future in implants. Pacemakers or insulin pumps do not need much energy to operate, so a diamond battery would be quite sufficient. The same goes for space exploration missions, such as Voyager 1.

To keep the onboard computer alive, the probe only needs a few watts of energy, an energy that a diamond battery could provide. This would extend the life of its mission by several millennia!

A more environmentally friendly solution?

But the creation of this new battery could have other advantages. Indeed, scientists assure that its design is more environmentally friendly. And for good reason, although it takes a lot of energy to build a diamond battery, it does not need to extract rare metals, such as lithium. Based simply on carbon (present absolutely everywhere), this battery would therefore be good news for the planet.

The only obstacle to its expansion, in addition to its very limited power, would be its price. Built in the laboratory by trapping carbon 14 in a synthetic diamond, this battery is very expensive to develop.

Some people are also worried about the risks in the event of an explosion or too violent an impact on the battery. If the diamond were to break, it could release a particularly dangerous radioactive isotope. We will therefore have to monitor the development of these technologies very closely in the coming months.

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