NDBI secures second US patent for carbon nano-onion synthesis
Nuclear Diamond Batteries, Inc. (OTC: NDBI) has announced that the USPTO issued a second US patent to its subsidiary AtomiQ Inc. on 13 October 2026. Patent No. 12,759,882 B2, titled "Synthesis of Carbon Nano-Onions by Nanodiamond Annealing and Functionalization of Carbon Materials," carries 18 claims relating to the production and surface modification of carbon nano-onion nanoparticles derived from controlled thermal treatment of nanodiamond materials.
The new grant follows the company's first issued patent, No. 12,394,534 B2, which covers a diamond-based nuclear-voltaic architecture designed to convert energy from radioisotope decay into electrical power. A third application, covering a high-porosity metal-organic framework electrode, has already received a USPTO Notice of Allowance and is pending formal issue. NDBI says the three instruments together provide layered IP coverage across power generation, advanced carbon materials and energy storage components.
What the patents do and do not cover
The company is careful to note in its own disclosure that the newly issued patent does not independently demonstrate the commercial viability of a completed nuclear diamond battery system. Additional research, engineering and regulatory validation will be required before any commercial deployment. NDBI has not commenced production of a nuclear-powered device, has no named customers, and has not disclosed revenue.
President David Tobias said the second patent "expands our protection into advanced nanodiamond-derived carbon materials," complementing the nuclear-voltaic architecture covered by the first grant. The company's stated commercialisation strategy centres on technology licensing, strategic partnerships and joint development agreements rather than self-funded manufacturing, which is a typical capital-light approach for early-stage IP-holding companies that lack the balance sheet for volume production.
NDBI has separately published a white paper targeting the LoRaWAN connected-device ecosystem, which the LoRa Alliance puts at approximately 150 million devices globally as of September 2026. The company proposes a hybrid architecture in which a nuclear-voltaic source continuously charges a supercapacitor that periodically powers sensor transmissions, reducing or eliminating conventional battery replacement in remote or inaccessible locations. The white paper is conceptual; no prototype data or field-trial results have been released.
Market context and competitive landscape
Nuclear diamond batteries, sometimes termed betavoltaics or nuclear microbatteries, occupy a niche corner of the broader energy-storage sector. The technology converts radiation from radioactive isotopes, typically carbon-14 or nickel-63 derived from nuclear waste, into electrical current via a semiconductor junction. Several better-funded efforts are under way globally: the UK's Arkenlight and Bristol-based spinouts have explored diamond betavoltaic cells, and Chinese firm BV100 announced commercial sales of a carbon-14 diamond battery in early 2024. Power densities remain in the microwatt range, suitable for extremely low-draw sensors but far from general-purpose battery replacement.
The broader battery energy storage systems market, cited by NDBI from Grand View Research data, is projected to grow from roughly $13 billion in 2025 to approximately $100 billion by 2033. NDBI explicitly states that this figure represents the wider conventional market and does not reflect the company's addressable segment, which is confined to specialised, low-power, long-duration applications where maintenance costs make conventional cells uneconomic.
Regulatory hurdles are non-trivial. Any commercial nuclear-voltaic product will require licensing from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for radioactive material handling, transportation and end-of-life disposal, in addition to sector-specific approvals for medical or aerospace use cases. These timelines typically extend well beyond patent issuance and prototype validation, and represent a meaningful commercialisation risk for a company of NDBI's current stage and resources.