Imagine a battery that could keep running for thousands of years. No recharging, no replacing, and no waste piling up in landfills. It sounds like science fiction, but scientists in the UK have turned this idea into reality with the world’s first diamond battery as discovered in a story published on ITV, an extraordinary piece of technology with the potential to revolutionize how we think about power.
Here’s the lowdown on what makes this innovation so groundbreaking—and why it might just change the world.
At the heart of this futuristic battery is a clever combination of science and synthetic diamonds. These diamonds, grown in a lab, encase a radioactive element called Carbon-14, a material often found in nuclear waste.
As Carbon-14 decays, it emits fast-moving electrons. The diamond battery captures these electrons and converts them into electricity, much like how a solar panel uses sunlight to generate power. This mechanism allows the battery to create energy continuously, as long as the radioactive element remains active—which, as it turns out, is a very long time.
Here’s where the longevity of the diamond battery becomes truly astonishing: Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years. That means even after five millennia, the battery would still have half of its power left. Compare this to the lithium-ion battery in your smartphone, which might last a couple of years before it needs replacing, and the difference is night and day.
This kind of durability could make the diamond battery indispensable in situations where replacing a power source is impractical—or outright impossible.
“This technology is particularly suitable for places you can’t access,” said Stephen Wheeler from the UK Atomic Energy Authority. “If it’s in space, or sub-sea, or you don’t want to access it because it’s in a hazardous environment.”
Picture deep-space probes exploring the outer reaches of our solar system, powered by diamond batteries that don’t need replacement for millennia. Or devices in the ocean’s depths, monitoring ecosystems without the need for human intervention. It could also be a game-changer for medical technology, powering pacemakers, hearing aids, and even implants in the eye—delivering reliable energy without the need for surgery to swap batteries.
