John Goodenough, 100, co-creator of lithium battery
Goodenough was the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize when he shared the award with British-born American scientist M. Stanley Whittingham and Japan’s Akira Yoshino.
“Live to 97 and you can do anything,” Goodenough said when the Nobel was awarded, adding he was grateful he wasn’t forced to retire at 65.
And while his name may not ring a bell to most, Goodenough’s research helped unlock a revolution in technology now taken for granted in today’s world of portable phones, tablets and just about anything else with a plug-in port for a recharge.
Eleanor P. Kerrigan, 92, of Media, formerly of Chester, passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 25, 2023 at Lima Estates.
The daughter of James and Susan (Bradley) Kerrigan, Eleanor graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1948 and Chester Hospital Nursing School in 1953.
Dedicated to her career as a registered nurse, Eleanor spent most of her working years at Sun Oil Company in Philadelphia and eventually rose to the rank of president of the Pennsylvania Association of Occupational Health Nurses. She was an avid traveler with passport stamps from places as far-flung as Kenya, China, Japan, and the Soviet Union. In retirement, Eleanor never met a bowling tournament, rummage sale, video poker machine, or bold sweater she didn’t like. She was fiercely original and independent.
She is predeceased by one sister, Joan Kerrigan, S.N.D., and survived by her other, Marie Kramaric, formerly of Concordville.
Eleanor devoted her life to care and nowhere was that more apparent than in the love and guidance she offered those she leaves behind who knew her as their beloved ‘Aunt El’: her nephew, Charles J. Kramaric; her two great nephews, Christopher C. Kramaric and Michael K. Young; and her great niece, Victoria S. Vogel.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Mary Magdalene Church, 2400 N. Providence Rd., Media on Saturday, July 1 at 11:00 a.m. Burial will follow at St. Denis Cemetery, Havertown. All are welcome.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to Widener University - School of Nursing, Development Office, 1 University Place, Chester, PA 19013.
Lithium-ion batteries were the first truly portable and rechargeable batteries, and they took more than a decade to develop. Whittingham said in 2019 that he had no inkling that his work decades ago would have such a profound impact on the world.
“We thought it would be nice and help in a few things,” Goodenough said, “but never dreamed it would revolutionize electronics and everything else.”
Goodenough, Whittingham and Yoshino each had unique breakthroughs that laid the foundation for developing a commercial rechargeable battery and the three shared the $900,000 Nobel Prize.
Whittingham’s work in the 1970s harnessed the tendency of lithium — the lightest metal — to give away its electrons to make a battery capable of generating just over two volts.
By 1980, Goodenough had built on Whittingham’s work and doubled the battery’s capacity to four volts by using cobalt oxide in the cathode, one of the two electrodes that make up the ends of a battery.
That battery remained too explosive for general commercial use. Yoshino’s work in the 1980s eliminated the volatile pure lithium from the battery and instead opted for lithium ions that are safer. The first lightweight, safe, durable and rechargeable commercial batteries entered the market in 1991.
Born in Jena, Germany in 1922, Goodenough grew up in the United States and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago. He began his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research laid the groundwork for development of randomaccess memory for the digital computer.