“Bye-bye to lithium-ion waste batteries.” [UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and University of Bristol]
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Where and how do we get the raw materials for our batteries?
Specifically, over the last decade and on these pages, there have been questions about the cobalt in your car battery and the ethics of mining minerals – raising the further question of whether responsible mining is possible.
And so we have looked to alternatives to cobalt, such as vanadium, lithium and liquid air battery technology. We’ve also been looking nearer to home, as Cornwall ‘looks to become a global hub for sourcing’ lithium. And by now the renewables sector is pretty open about the EV battery supply chain.
But battery technology goes beyond powering cars. And again in the South West, a further step in creating alternatives is happening, with the UK government announcement: Diamonds are forever? World-first carbon-14 diamond battery made.
The Telegraph reports on how scientists have invented battery that never dies:
A diamond battery that never dies has been invented by British scientists and could power pacemakers and satellites for thousands of years. The battery is made up of lab-grown diamonds which encase a slice of the radioactive material carbon-14. Diamond’s semiconductor properties convert the radioactivity into electricity, the scientists say, while its ultra-hardness protects the battery and prevents the radioactivity from escaping and causing harm.
Nuclear fusion experts at the Government’s UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is trying to make a commercial “mini-Sun” fusion reactor by 2040, worked with engineers at the University of Bristol on the project to build a prototype. Specialist fusion-research equipment was used to grow the bespoke diamond around a chunk of carbon-14. The battery is the size of a conventional wrist watch battery at 10mm across and just 0.5mm thick. “Diamond batteries offer a safe, sustainable way to provide continuous microwatt levels of power,” said Sarah Clark, director of tritium fuel cycle at UKAEA. “They are an emerging technology that uses a manufactured diamond to safely encase small amounts of carbon-14.”
Fatimah Sannie, senior process engineer at UKAEA who worked on the project, said: “The diamond battery would revolutionise the battery industry. “Bye-bye to lithium-ion waste batteries and bye-bye to constant surgery to change pacemakers. The future would be us using diamond batteries in almost everything. We can use it in small satellites, in computer chips and remote control wrist watches.”
Here’s what the University of Bristol have to say in their own diamond battery media release – as part, of UKAEA’s work on fusion energy.
Weak radio luminescence captured by a low light intensity camera from a synthetic diamond carbon film made from beta-emitting carbon-14 atoms – Image Credit: University of Bristol
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