{"id":9910,"date":"2021-11-17T14:31:31","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T13:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/future-markets-magazine.com\/?p=9910"},"modified":"2021-11-17T14:31:31","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T13:31:31","slug":"father-of-the-lithium-ion-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/future-markets-magazine.com\/en\/innovators-en\/father-of-the-lithium-ion-battery\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of the lithium-ion battery"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are not many people who can look back on 80 years of research. And even fewer still who have revolutionised people’s lives with their work. John B. Goodenough, the father of the lithium-ion battery, is one of them. Even today, at the age of 99, he is still researching more sustainable alternatives for energy storage. He views the ability to engage in dialogue as a key skill for any successful scientist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They supply energy for smartphones and electric tools alike, and electromobility would be impossible without them: lithium-ion batteries. The Nobel Prize committee could attest to this as well: “Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised our lives since they first entered the market in 1991. They have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil-fuel-free society, and are of the greatest benefit to humankind.” This was the committee’s justification for awarding the Nobel Prize for Chemistry to John B. Goodenough in 2019. Nowadays, he is heralded as one of the fathers of the lithium-ion battery together with M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, who received the award in Stockholm alongside him, and several others.<\/p>\n

A bumpy start for the father of the lithium-ion battery<\/h2>\n

Goodenough identified and developed the crucial materials that supply the high energy density found in lithium-ion batteries. However, Goodenough had to overcome a number of early obstacles. Born in 1922 to American parents in Jena, Germany, Goodenough had to struggle with undiagnosed dyslexia at school. Back then, he explains, “you were simply labelled a backward student”. Nonetheless, he was determined to follow his older brother to boarding school. “I taught myself to write so I could write the entrance exam,” he explains. He was awarded a scholarship and took up a place at the Groton School in Massachusetts at the age of twelve. The strict, highly structured education did him good, he says, helping him gain admission to Yale in 1940.<\/p>\n

Science is an international language<\/h2>\n

Goodenough had almost finished his degree in Mathematics when he was called up to active army service as a meteorologist in 1943. The Second World War would shape his later life, impressing upon him the drive to do something for the common good, and to do so by scientific means: “I think that science is an international language and helps to build the relationships that are necessary to suppress the greed and stupidities that lead to war,” as he puts it. After the war’s end, he set about completing his doctorate in physics, starting his career in 1952 at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, where his work laid the foundations for the random-access memory (RAM) used in computers. After leaving MIT, he gained a professorship and became head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

The lithium-ion battery is a joint effort<\/h2>\n

It was during this period that Goodenough discovered lithium ions. He joined in with Whittingham’s research and hypothesised that a battery’s potential would be much greater if the cathode were made of a metal oxide, instead of a metal sulphide. After a systematic search, he was able to demonstrate in 1980 that cobalt oxide could be used to construct a battery with a potential of four volts. This was a major breakthrough, paving the way for batteries with much higher performance. In 1985, Akira Yoshino used Goodenough’s cathode as a springboard to manufacturing the first commercially viable battery. For the anode, he used a material containing carbon, which can also accommodate lithium ions. This made it possible to develop a lightweight, hard-wearing battery that could be recharged hundreds of times.<\/p>\n

Be open to dialogue and enjoy what you do<\/h2>\n

“Every scientist is an individual and brings a different talent to the problem. But you have to be open to dialogue so that we can all benefit from one another’s intuition,” is the advice from Goodenough. He holds dialogue up as the key to all creativity. “I suppose I do my best thinking when I am in dialogue with somebody about a problem,” he explains. And his most important advice for being a successful scientist? Don’t copy anything! “Well, as I say, don’t believe everything that you read and don’t be afraid to think – and it is all right to understand what has gone before, but don’t just rely on copying – develop your internal voice and your own internal means of interpreting.”<\/p>\n

This might take a different form for each person. One might be able to build devices well, while another might have a well-developed theoretical understanding, and others might have a certain kind of scientific intuition. Above all, however, we should enjoy what we do. “Research is a demanding and sometimes frustrating profession,” Goodenough explains.<\/p>\n

Our society is still completely dependent on fossil fuels, and we’ve got to find an alternative soon.<\/div><\/div>\n

Much remains to be done<\/h2>\n

Regardless of the acclaim, he takes a thoroughly critical view of his biggest success, the lithium-ion battery: “Although the lithium-ion battery has transformed our modern way of life, it has not enabled modern society’s emancipation from dependence on the energy stored in a fossil fuel, a dependence that is not sustainable.” Yet Goodenough won’t stop at that.<\/p>\n

Even at the age of 99, he is still researching more sustainable and more energy-efficient battery materials. Two years ago, he and his team identified a new cathode material for use in sodium-ion batteries. The incremental improvements he has made to lithium-ion batteries’ size and performance earn him a living, Goodenough reveals. He is more interested in “out-of-the-box” research, which he sees as the only route to true innovation. At his age, he feels that time is running out and he would dearly love to be able to solve the problem. “And I think we’re on the verge of being able to do that.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are not many people who can look back on 80 years of research. 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