Chemistry award for work on batteries

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry to three scientists who developed lithiumion 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.

“Lithiumion 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. Lithiumion 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.

Goodenough, 97, is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. 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.