Chemistry Nobel awarded to 3 scientists who 'created a rechargeable world' with the lithium-ion battery

(Image credit: Naina Helen Jama/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

published 9 October 2019

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday to John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino "for the development of lithium-ion batteries," collectively creating "a rechargeable world."

Whittingham, a Briton at SUNY Binghamton, got the ball rolling in the 1970s, during the oil crisis, developing the first functional lithium battery, though it was too explosive to be commercially viable. Goodenough, a German-born professor at the University of Texas at Austin, doubled the lithium battery's potential, and Yoshino replaced Goodenough's cobalt oxide cathode with petroleum coke, ridding the battery of pure lithium and creating the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in Japan in 1985.

"The result was a lightweight, hardwearing battery that could be charged hundreds of times before its performance deteriorated," the Swedish academy said. "Lithium-ion batteries are used globally to power the portable electronics that we use to communicate, work, study, listen to music and search for knowledge. Lithium-ion batteries have also enabled the development of long-range electric cars and the storage of energy from renewable sources, such as solar and wind power." Read more about their research at the Nobel Committee.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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