It could be the end of car charging with the arrival of a diamond battery that lasts 28,000 years and is priceless. The battery market has been giving a lot to talk about in recent times due to the demand. A striking case was that of the vegetable battery produced by forests. However, what we are going to tell you now surpasses anything we have ever seen.
The last few years have been marked by the development of batteries for electric vehicles, a field in which we thought nothing else could surprise us.
However, there is a model that comes to break all the pre-established paradigms. A battery capable of lasting 28,000 years seems like science fiction (and, in reality, it is so). We’ll tell you what actually happened with this promising invention that didn’t turn out the way you’d expect.
This diamond battery is a milestone in the industry
The diamond battery we are talking about was going to be made from nuclear waste and promised to last 28,000 years. It is a proposal from the Californian start-up Nano Diamond Battery (NDB), which already had a prototype called “Diamond Nuclear Voltaic”.
In the case of electric vehicles, NBD’s nanobatteries ensure an autonomy of 90 years. The new NDB battery allegedly received its energy from recycled radioactive isotopes that come from nuclear waste, such as radioactive graphite.
Each unit would have a single crystalline diamond that absorbs the energy from the isotopes. Since they have a lifetime of several thousand years, their creators “guarantee” that they will continue to emit energy and the battery will never need to be recharged.
The thermal conduction efficiency of microscopic diamonds allgedly act to draw heat away from the radioactive isotopes as soon as electricity is produced. The polycrystalline diamond layer that acts as the battery cover contains radiation inside.
Its material is harder, up to 12 times stronger than stainless steel. As the Californian company explains, the part was “completely safe” for humans, because the radioactive diamond was wrapped in multiple coatings of “extremely durable” synthetic diamonds.
The diamond battery that has already become famous for its efficiency: it could find its way into cars
The synthetic diamonds allegedly (yes, allegedly) had a tamper-proof protective layer to prevent leakage. Moreover, NDB maybe would have certified that the radiation levels of a cell are lower than those emitted by the human body, making it safe for use in smartphones or laptops.
In terms of applications, this battery could have been a promising future in the aerospace industry, but also in automotive, consumer electronics or medical technology (pacemakers, hearing aids).
The firm intented to sell the battery to commercial partners, including space agencies for long duration missions. No details were given on the price of this incredible power source, as it is currently in the development phase, and now you will find out why.
One if the biggest scams in history of transportation: what happened later
After all this, you may wonder: what ended up happening to the diamond battery? Why is it not seen in today’s cars if it was so promising? At the end of it all, it turned out to be a massive scam that caused millions of dollars in losses to investors who believed in true sustainable mobility. The startup developer, NDP, ended up being denounced and investigated by the competent authority.
In short, the diamond battery could have been just what the industry is looking for cars to end their range problem, but it all ended up in a scam. In the meantime, alternatives are appearing, such as the invention of a user who claims to have created the first electric vehicle that does not need to be recharged.
