Scientists from the University of Bristol, in association with the British Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), in the United Kingdom, have succeeded in developing a reliable and sustainable source of electricity, to put it mildly. The result is a battery based on a tiny amount of carbon-14, safely encased in a diamond. With a radioactive half-life of 5,730 years, the autonomy of this device would be several thousand years without requiring recharging. This battery would have very varied areas of application, and would be particularly valuable for health.
Longevity
Carbon-14 is still commonly used to date ancient objects, as part of archaeological research. In the present case, it is the energy released by the radioactive decay of carbon-14 which is exploited. The researchers compare the operation of this battery to that of solar panels. The difference is that instead of converting light into electricity, it uses fast-moving electrons from radioactive decay.
Half of the carbon-14 atoms decay into nitrogen-14 after 5,730 years. This battery can therefore power devices for periods of time that defy imagination, without requiring recharging.
Security
This battery is based on carbon-14 enclosed in diamond, one of the hardest materials known. Its short-range radiation is absorbed by the diamond envelope. The battery safely captures radiation to produce very low levels of electricity.
Sarah Clark, Director of Tritium Fuel Cycle at UKAEA highlights the durability and safety of the device. It also evokes the versatility of possible applications, particularly in medicine.
In addition to its hardness, diamond has another quality: biocompatibility. This diamond battery could power implants such as pacemakers, hearing aids and eye devices. Uses in the space domain are also being advanced, and more broadly in environments or devices for which conventional energy sources would not be practical.
We had already devoted an article to research work on a diamond battery, carried out at the University of Bristol: the ASPIRE project (for Advanced Self-Powered sensor units in Intense Radiation Environments). These diamonds were made from waste from the former Berkeley nuclear power station in Gloucestershire, the first shut down in the United Kingdom, in 1989. Thirty years later, scientists were able to access beneath the power station, where the blocks were stored graphite used to moderate the reaction. In 2016, researchers highlighted the concentration of radioactive carbon-14 on the surface of these blocks, its extraction thereby reducing their radioactivity.
The choice of carbon-14 is explained by its short-range radiation, quickly absorbed by any solid material. The researchers therefore incorporated it into diamond made at the University of Bristol. Because when brought into contact with a radioactive source, the artificial diamond produces a charge. Tom Scott, professor of materials at the University’s Center for Interface Analysis and member of the Cabot Institute, said in 2016: “By encapsulating radioactive materials in diamonds, we are transforming a nuclear waste problem into a nuclear energy battery and a sustainable supply of clean energy. »
Health
