Nobel goes to creators of game-changing battery.
Researcher from the U.S., at 97, becomes oldest person to win the award
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry to three scientists who developed lithium-ion batteries, the energy storage systems that have revolutionized portable electronics. Larger examples of the batteries have given rise to electric cars that can be driven on long trips, while the miniaturized versions are used in lifesaving medical devices like cardiac defibrillators.
John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino will share the prize, which is worth about $900,000.
“Lithium-ion batteries are a great example of how chemistry can transform peoples’ lives,” said Bonnie Charpentier, president of the American Chemical Society. “It’s wonderful to see this work recognized by the Nobel Prize.”
The three researchers’ work in the 1970s and ‘80s led to the creation of powerful, lightweight and rechargeable batteries that might be powering the smartphone or laptop computer that you’re using to read this article today. Lithium-ion batteries are also used in billions of cameras and power tools. Astronauts use them on the International Space Station, and the batteries have improved the prospects of renewable energy. Reducing fossil fuel energy sources can contribute to lessening the impact of climate change.
“Development of these batteries is a huge step forward, so we that we can really store solar and wind energy,” said Sara Snogerup Linse, chairwoman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
Goodenough, 97, is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. With the award he becomes the oldest Nobel Prize winner, but is still active in research. Whittingham, 77, is a professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Yoshino, 71, is
an honorary fellow for the Asahi Kasei Corp. in Tokyo and a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan.
The Arab oil embargo of 1973 made many scientists realize the extent of society’s dependence on fossil fuels. Whittingham, who was working for Exxon at the time, discovered that titanium disulfide was an extremely energy-rich material that could be used in a battery for its positive electrode, or cathode.
Goodenough, then at Oxford University, discovered that the cathode would have greater potential if it were made with a different material and showed that cobalt oxide, which had layers to hold pockets of lithium ions, could produce a higher voltage.
Yoshino then eliminated pure lithium from the battery, instead using only lithium ions, which are safer.