Chemistry Nobel Prize - The Lithium Ion Batteries

The Nobel prize in the field of chemistry for this year is declared and it is awarded to John D. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion batteries, the Nobel Committee said on Wednesday, 9th October 2019. These lithium-ion batteries started to revolutionize our lives since 1991.

In this article, I am going to talk about the changes and development done by the three scientists in the lithium-ion batteries. As a matter of fact, let me tell you that every mobile phone or any such electronic gadget in the current time is powered by lithium-ion batteries only.

However, the development of lithium-ion batteries was done by Dr. Whittingham, during the 1970s. Lithium has a single electron in its outer shell and it has a natural drive to release this outer electron and Dr. Whittingham used the same property of lithium to develop the first functional lithium-ion battery. He was able to develop a potential of 2 volts with the help of this battery.

Now, beyond this Dr. Goodenough comes into the picture as he just doubled the potential of the same lithium-ion battery from 2 volts to 4 volts. He was able to create the right conditions for a more powerful and useful battery.

As we know very well that any battery consists of anode and cathode and Dr. Whittingham used titanium disulfide as cathode and lithium as anode for his first-ever lithium battery. In 1980, Dr. Goodenough replaced the titanium disulfide cathode with cobalt oxide and voila, the voltage of the same lithium battery increased to 4 volts. At this stage also, the pure lithium in the battery was still a concern since lithium is highly reactive metal and the battery was not yet safe to use on a large scale.

At this stage, Akira Yoshino helped the world by making the lithium-ion batteries safe to use. Akira Yoshino replaced lithium with petroleum coke which drew lithium ions towards it. Once the battery was operational, the ions and electrons flowed towards the cobalt oxide cathode. The first commercially viable lithium battery was developed by Akira Yoshino in 1991.

Along with the glory of the Nobel prize, it also comes with 9-million kronor ($918,000) cash award, a gold medal, and a diploma. The laureates will receive them at an elegant ceremony on Dec. 10 the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, Nobel prize founder.