Nano-diamond battery that "lasts for 28k years" closer to commercialization

EEVblog did a debunk of this at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;uzV_uzSTCTM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;uzV_uzSTCTM</a><p>Basically, the power density of these are so low that they&#x27;re useless for most applications. Sure, it might last 28,000 years, but you&#x27;re only getting 100 microwatts from a battery the size of a normal AA battery.

This is cool, but not actually new - we&#x27;ve had nuclear pacemakers for decades: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;uk.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;health-heart-pacemaker-dc&#x2F;nuclear-pacemaker-still-energized-after-34-years-idUKN1960427320071219" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;uk.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;health-heart-pacemaker-dc&#x2F;nuc...</a><p>There is no need to be sceptical - this is obviously meant for super low-power devices, not cars.

Please don your skeptic hats before reading this article. I&#x27;m mainly fascinated that companies with such extraordinary claims can survive or even get enough backing to exist.

It&#x27;s 100 microwatts, and there are other nuclear-decay based betavoltaic batteries on the market, including some used to power pacemakers.<p>See <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Atomic_battery" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Atomic_battery</a><p>It may be a nice product, but it&#x27;s not new, revolutionary, or unique.

I share the skepticism here. Regardless, here are some more-direct sources of info.<p>NDB&#x27;s web site: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ndb.technology&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ndb.technology&#x2F;</a><p>NDB&#x27;s recent press release: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.prweb.com&#x2F;releases&#x2F;ndb_inc_announces_major_technological_laboratory_breakthrough_for_the_first_universal_self_charging_nano_diamond_battery_first_beta_customers&#x2F;prweb17347911.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.prweb.com&#x2F;releases&#x2F;ndb_inc_announces_major_techn...</a><p>In the press release, you can see the company itself is making the extraordinary claims about applications like electric vehicles and aircraft. (That is, it&#x27;s not an embellishment by whoever wrote the mining.com article.)

Ridiculous. Somebody is trying to raise money from naive people. Sometimes my cell phone gets hot enough that a cat would want to sleep on it.

Discussion on reddit two days ago, 350+ comments.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;Futurology&#x2F;comments&#x2F;iiedk4&#x2F;energy_firm_says_its_nuclearwaste_fueled_diamond&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;Futurology&#x2F;comments&#x2F;iiedk4&#x2F;energy_f...</a>

This <i>really</i> sounds like pure snake oil: a ton of buzzwords, diamonds and nukes to make it sound exciting and cool, an unbelievably long period of power release (how can they even test that their claim is true ?).<p>I&#x27;d pass until one of those devices has been tested by a slew of independent labs and confirmed to at least deliver the claimed power density.

I can&#x27;t imagine a world where cell phones don&#x27;t have chargers...and battery life indicators are a thing of the past. Such a surreal thought.<p>That said, would it be wrong to worry about the dangers of this? I mean, cell phone batteries today spew fire if you puncture them. This tech has to have massive potential energy, can it fail similarly?

A battery breakthrough is always 3-5 years away from coming to market.

It seems the key challenge with the general technology of atomic batteries is power density. Is there any chance that might be solved?

It seems the best applications would be ones with periodic need of more power and feeding the capacitor from the battery.

Oh that’s why they didn’t provide any numbers except 28k years