everlasting batteries | Nano diamond batteries | self charging batteries

 Diamond Batteries

In today’s world, there is a lot of energy crisis, to overcome the crisis Scientists from the University of Bristol Cabot Institute are hitting two birds with one stone, thanks to their lab-made diamond that can generate electricity and is made from upcycled radioactive waste.

In nuclear power plants, radioactive uranium is split in a process called nuclear fission. When the atoms are split, heat is generated, and that heat then vaporizes water into steam that turns electricity-generating turbines.

Nuclear reactors generate heat from highly radioactive uranium rods. The rods are placed in blocks of graphite to control the heat flow and nuclear reactions. After years of absorbing nuclear radiation, the graphite blocks become highly radioactive as well. When nuclear power plants are decommissioned, they have to dispose of the graphite blocks.

The researchers realized they could heat the carbon blocks, which causes radioactive carbon to turn into a gas. This gas is then collected and compressed to form a diamond. This diamond has some cool properties. Because of its radioactive nature, it can generate a small electric current. This requires no moving parts or maintenance and can last for thousands of years without needing to be replaced.

 Today, this nuclear contamination is safely stored away until it stops being radioactive…and with a half-life of 5,730 years, that takes quite a while. And storing is quite expensive also. It is estimated that every year over 100 billion dollars is spent globally for the storage and management the radioactive graphite waste. 

The scientists found a way to heat the radioactive graphite to release most of the radioactivity in a gaseous form. The gas is subjected to high temperatures and low pressures that turn it into artificial diamonds that generate electricity.

These diamonds produce a small current that could last for thousands of years.  Such long-lived "diamond batteries" could be used in spacecraft, implants such as pacemakers, and in other areas where long battery life is crucial.

Nanodiamond batteries

There is another kind of diamond battery called the Nanodiamond battery. A Californian company NDB has done research on it. And as per estimates, it will be commercially available in another 5 years. The company claims the battery can run for 28,000 years on a single charge. According to The company, these diamond batteries find their application in smartphone batteries, car batteries, medical instruments like pacemakers, spacecraft, and might replace all other batteries. 

The nanodiamond battery is a self-charging battery made by trapping carbon-14 nuclear waste in an artificial diamond-case. The battery works by generating electricity on its own from a shower of electrons as a result of radioactive decay scattered and deposited in the artificial diamond-case. The principal used is similar to the research done by Scientists from the University of Bristol Cabot Institute i.e. harnessing energy from radioactive graphite which is the waste from a nuclear reactor. 

These diamond batteries may be the answer to all our energy crisis in the coming years. It will be cleaner, cheaper, and lasts for thousands of years. But with this solution gives rise to other problem radiation ..! There will always be a fear of radiation leak, which has devastating effects on human health. The manufacturers must provide foolproof protection against the radiation if they are commercially available someday. 

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