modern battery makers that changed the world, by their incredible invention in the field of science.

1. NOBEL LAURESTES IN
CHEMISTRY 2019
Lithium ion batteries
OCTOBER 1, 2019
SPARSH SHUKLA
19BCE10430

2. Chemistry assignment
Topic- noble prize in chemistry in the year 2019.
This year Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to the
renowned scientists John B. Goodenough, M Stanley
Whittingham, Akira Yoshino for “major developments on lithium
ion batteries”. The Nobel prize was shared between the three
scientists.
Born - July 25, 1922. Jena, Germany
Education – Yale university (BS)
University of Chicago (MS, PhD)
Work – Li-Ion rechargeable batteries
RAM (random access memory)
Born - 1922. Nottingham, England.
Education – Oxford (BS,MS, PhD)
Work – Li-Ion rechargeable batteries

3. Chemistry assignment
Born - January 30, 1948. Suita, Japan
Education – Kyoto university (BS, MS)
University of Osaka (PhD)
Work – Li-Ion rechargeable batteries
Q2. Their individual contribution towards
the discovery and advancement of lithium-
ion battery is as follows-
M Stanley Whittingham - “It is remarkable too
that although 30 years old, they have not been eclipsed by
a better battery technology even now, which makes you
realize what a remarkable discovery they are.” Quoted by
the prof Mark Miodownik.
In 1970’s rechargeable batteries were around the market,
but they had certain drawbacks, they were not able to
store enough energy. Thus, lithium was the answer as it
was light weight metal and easily loses an electron. But
lithium reactivity was tricky to harness.

4. Chemistry assignment
But in 1970’s Stanley Whittingham solved the problem
while researching and making an approach for fossil- free
energy in light of the oil crisis. His model was the first fully
functional lithium battery. He used Li metal in the anode
and lithium ions attached into titanium disulphide in
cathode. But there was a drawback that, when the battery
was repeatedly charged, it had a risk of exploding. The
improvement in the battery of explosion Whittingham
combined metallic lithium with aluminum in the anode.
Further improvements were done by John B Goodenough.
DR. John B. Goodenough – his age is 97,
making him the oldest Nobel laureate in the history
to win the prestigious award. When asked about what it
meant to be awarded the prestigious honor, Goodenough
said, “Live to 97 (years old) and you can do anything. I’m
honored and humbled to win the Nobel prize. I thank all
my friends for the support and assistance throughout my
life.” Quoted by Goodenough
In 1980 – Goodenough effectively worked on the
discoveries of Whittingham of an energy rich material
that is used to develop cathodes in lithium ion batteries.

5. Chemistry assignment
John B Goodenough predicted and experimented
that if the cathode is made up of metal oxides, as
opposed to metal sulfides, it would have greater
potential. He replaced the titanium disulphide in the
cathode with cobalt oxide- an approach that
doubled the voltage produced.
Thus, the experiment was successful, and the
cathode was more stable and less reactive.
In conclusion he used metal oxides in cathodes to
increase stabilityand to increase their potential.
Thus, this led to production of more powerful
batteries in the electronic market.favoring the
production of cell phones, laptop computers in
modern society.
AKIRA YOSHINO - 1981 Yoshino started his
research on rechargeable lithium ion batteries using
polyacetylene. In 1983 Yoshino created a prototype
of rechargeable battery using lithium cobalt oxide
(liCoO2). Which was discovered and utilized by john
Goodenough at oxford university as cathode and

6. Chemistry assignment
polyacetylene as an anode section. This was the
direct and modern lithium-ionbattery. Thus, there
were certain problems with polyacetylene such as
low real density and was unstable.
1985 modern lithium ion battery – he instead of
polyacetylene used carbonaceous material as anode,
this was the real creation of modern lithium ion
battery. Yoshino also developed the aluminum foil
current collector., which basically gave high voltage
at low cost. LIB’s by Yoshino was commissioned and
went under manufacture of batteries by Sony in
1991.
Petroleum coke battery

7. Chemistry assignment
Q3. Summarize the chemical concepts
involved in their discovery.
During 1970s lithium-ion batteries were laid due
to the oil crisis.
One of the first batteries were created by
Stanley Whittingham when he used Titanium
disulphide which has spaces for lithium ions.
Anode was made by metallic lithium which had
strong releasing electron action. It also had
potential just over 2 V.
John Goodenough made the cathode with
metal oxides for greater potential. 1980s he
demonstrated cobalt oxide which produced 4 V.
This led to powerful batteries.
Akira Yoshino created first commercial battery in
1985 by using petroleum coke. This battery was
rechargeable more than 100 times before
becoming weak.
This was revolution in the electrical and chemical
industries and fields.

8. Chemistry assignment
Q4. Mention the development timeline
of their research.
600 BCE- The discovery of electric charge was
done by creating a charge by rubbing a fur on
glass. Thales made the term as electricity.
1740’s – In this era, a discovery was made that
can store a high voltage of electric charge
between the conductors. It was known as the
Leyden jar which was made by metal foil inside
the surface of the jar. Leyden jar was named
after the city in which it was discovered Leyden.
It was discovered by Ewald Georg von Kleist.
1817 – A Swedish chemist named Johan
August Arfvedson discovered an important
chemical element lithium in Stockholm, Sweden,
during analysis of petalite ore. He called it as
lithium.

9. Chemistry assignment
1820 – he was the Danish physicist and
chemist, he discovered that electric currents
create magnetic fields, which was first
connection between electricity and magnetism.
Oersted’s law and the oersted (oe) are named
after him.
1859 – Gaston plante was a French physicist
who is known for the first electric storage
battery, or accumulator, in improved form his
invention is majorly used in automobile sector.
He was experimenting with two sheets of lead,
separated by rubber strips, rolled into a spiral in
a sulfuric acid solution.
1881 - Camille Alphonse Faure, was a French
chemical engineer who improved lead-acid
batteries. He patented a method of coating lead
plates with a paste of lead oxides, sulphuric acid
and water. This led to lead plate, this plate gave
a substantial increase in capacity with plante ‘s

10. Chemistry assignment
battery. He had four more patents for lead acid
battery.
1902- Thomas Edison commercialized nickel
iron batteries in united states. It offered as a
energy source for electric vehicles. Ni-Fe design
was far superior than lead acid batteries. His
batteries had high energy density than lead-acid
batteries but they more expensive.
1947- the very first cell phone was used in
1940s by Swedish police. Batteries were enough
to make six calls before the battery died. Battery
in a cell phone used a car battery. Most early cell
were used in a vehicle because they needed high
voltage and power. They initially started the
making of cells.
1967 – Ford motors bought a all-new
technology in terms of batteries, they developed
liquid electrodes separated by a ceramic
electrolyte. The electrodes are sodium and sulfur

11. Chemistry assignment
at temperature 300 C. This started the research
in ion transport.
1972 – at this era the lithium ion batteries came
into picture, where M Stanley Whittingham
worked with Exxon enterprises who hired
scientists to research in superconductivity.
During the research work they found Tantalum
Disulfide injected with potassium had potential
new type of battery, this led to substitute
titanium for tantalum and lithium for potassium.
It had potential for creating a battery with a
storage capacity of 480 watts per kilogram. This
was an important research in lithium ion
batteries. It was majorly led by Dr. M Stanley
Whittingham.
1973 – Motorola was a leading producer in
mobile telephones for cars, but the telephones
were large and heavy and consumed high
amount of power, we cannot use them without
the cars running. Martin Cooper developed a

12. Chemistry assignment
cellular telephony which had a battery life for
twenty minutes which good as compared to
other telephones.
1976 – Exxon industries brought a new
material for the batteries in this era, by the
working of Dr. Whittingham, TiS2 was shown to
serve as a host for reversible intercalated and
de-intercalated lithium into its structure. This
behavior of single-phase during cycling enables
it to fully remove and insert lithium ions
reversibly. This resulted Exxon’s cells as large as
45Wh. They were LiTiS2 batteries, and pure
lithium served as anode.
1978- During this time a great scientist was in
the race Dr. Goodenough. He undertook the
research of battery technology in lithium and
metal oxides. He previously did some research
on nickel oxides. older batteries were created
charged, but he created the batteries which were
sold uncharged. In this era the batteries were

13. Chemistry assignment
being small and portable to make them easy in
use.
1979 – Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka used
Sony’s bulky cassette recorder, so the research
team developed a portable Walkman, which
created a huge impact in batteries as now the
batteries must be impact and portable and light.
Sony Walkman high amount of energy storage
to power the motor in the device, hence better-
quality batteries were needed.
1979- General motors also announced its car
named Electovette, a vehicle which was powered
by new battery, zinc-nickel oxide battery. It was
heavy and stored high amount of energy.
1979- This time there was period of great
depression. Subsequently Exxon decided to stick
to its core industry and the company patented
LiTiS2 battery technology to the American
company of Eveready.

14. Chemistry assignment
1980- John B Goodenough predicted and
experimented that if the cathode is made up of
metal oxides, as opposed to metal sulfides, it
would have greater potential. He replaced the
titanium disulfide in the cathode with cobalt
oxide- an approach that doubled the voltage
produced. Rachid Yazami of Morocco discovered
a process that led to the lithium-graphiteanode
required for the commercializationof the
lithium-ion battery.
1982- Nokia company introduced The Mobira
Senator, it was considered the first mobile
phones in box form, it was the heaviest of that
kind, weighing 9.8 kilograms. This phone had dry
car battery cell.
1982- a new battery was developed at that time
based upon nickel and metal hydrides. The
positive electrodes is a foam made from nickel
and the negative electrode is composed of the
hydroxides of nine different metals. The

15. Chemistry assignment
electrolyte was also present it was solution of
potassium hydroxide.
1984- Motorola was developing the cellular
phone itself, Bell labs worked on the project
called AMPS. Martin Cooper lead a team that
produced the DynaTAC 8000x, the first
commercially availablecellular phone, it was
small enough to be carried. Motorola DynaTAC
8000x was very huge when to today’s phone, it
was very expensive as well, its retail price was
$3,995 .
1985- major research done by Akira Yoshino in
the Asahi Kasei Corporation in Japan created the
lithium ion battery. Yoshino took carbonaceous
material as anode and he fabricated the first
modern day lithium ion battery which received a
patent in the same year.
1986- at this era the research in the batteries
was reduced , all the major companies stopped

16. Chemistry assignment
the research of the batteries because the price of
the petroleum fell drastically . prices because the
discoveries in Saudi Arabia, Alaska, Mexico. The
energy density of the batteries was less than 40
watt-hrs. per kilogram and gasoline had 12
Kilowatt. Major companies like Exxon, General
motors closed the research. now the research
was only happening in universities.
1987- In the early 1980’s Sony Japan had
entered into an agreement with Eveready of the
U.S. to develop mass market rechargeable
lithium battery. Union company of Eveready was
in huge trouble by the disaster in Bhopal, India
and sold off Eveready. New type of battery was
produced a lithium cobalt oxide with a carbon
electrode. This new technology was lithium ion
to distinguish it from other problematic lithium-
based batteries. The voltage was 3.6 volts, it was
a tremendous breakthrough. Cell phones
needed 7 volts. The nickel cadmium battery had
a voltage of only 1.2 volts so six can be

17. Chemistry assignment
connected in series. Major breakthrough was
when lithium ion batteries did not suffer from
the memory effect of nickel-cadmium and
nickel-metal-hydridebatteries which lose energy
capacity from being recharged before they
completely shut down.
1988- A new company Britain Columbia,
Canada commercialized a revised version of
lithium battery. It was based upon lithium-
molybdenum and hence the company was called
as Moli. There was a drawback where the
batteries were catching fire.
1991- Sony combined Goodenough’s cathode
and an anode made up of carbon into world’s
first commercial rechargeable lithium ion
battery. Major problems were solved in the
electronic industries, as now the batteries were
light as compared to old ones. Sony used these
batteries in hand cam and Walkman. Lithium -

18. Chemistry assignment
ion batteries would pack more energy in smaller
space and was very efficient.
1993-Co worker with John Goodenough at the
university of Texas – Austin created a new
battery with different materials like lithium
ferrous phosphate LiFePo4, this had some
possibility to used in the battery technology era.
1993- Stanford Ovshinsky, an independent
inventor powered a Chrysler minivan by nickel
metal hydride battery pack.
1994- Motorola launches its new cellular phone
known as MicroTac which had a slim lithium ion
battery, it had multiple functions than the
previous model, with menus, power function,
name etc.
1996- Motorola launched an advanced cellular
phone which was instant commercial hit in the
market. It was known as Micro star TAC, it
introduced a flip design. It weighed only 3.1

19. Chemistry assignment
pounds and would fit in the pockets; voltage
requirement was 3 volts as compared to 7 volts.
But the product was expensive.
1996- Michael Armand, secured legal rights to
lithium iron phosphate.
1999- DoCoMo launched a cellular phone
known as I-mode, this was a big break through
as the cellular phone was capable of internet
services like web access for g-mail, sports results
etc.
2001- Yet-Ming Chiang and his three associates
founded a company named A123 system in
Boston. This group is developer and
manufacturer of lithium ion phosphate and
energy storage systems.
2005- A123 company announced and
published an article which gave high
performance from lithium ion batteries through
the technique of doping. A123 developed a new

20. Chemistry assignment
faster charging lithium ion battery system based
on doped Nano phosphate material licensed
from MIT.
2009- the Obama government funded the
battery technology development. A123 filed for
bankruptcy. The government gave the firm $249
million.
2014- The Charles Stark dapper prize for
engineering was awarded to John b.
Goodenough, Yoshino Akira for their important
development in lithium ion battery.
2019- the Nobel prize was shared between the
three great scientist name John B. Goodenough, M
Stanley Whittingham, Akira Yoshino, who made the
lithium in battery a commercial success and
solved major energy storage
problems.

21. Chemistry assignment
Q5. How and Why, in your opinion, do
you think is the significance of their
discovery?
 Batteries are part of our daily lives; modern
society cannot live without batteries.
batteries are mode of survival in modern era.
 Lithium ion batteries changed history and
technology after their invention as we have
seen the timeline that for creating a perfect
lithium ion thousands of ideas and years
were used, to give modern society a gift in
terms of batteries.
 HOW? – their discoveries made batteries
compact, potable, efficient and durable at
the same time- Whittingham knew that we
must create something from renewable
energy, sir wanted to create a fossil free
battery. This was a major thought that was in
the modern society as the safest mode of
energy now is electricity stored in batteries.
John B Goodenoughalso acknowledged

22. Chemistry assignment
Whittingham and tried to make the batteries
lighter and more efficient for the betterment
in technology, by his research the batteries
were very efficient and were able to produce
great potential. His discovery led to the
major advancement in the field of batteries
and research. Akira Yoshino followed the
workings of Goodenough and made a
practical model of the battery which
commercially available, modern society
needs energy for the technology, through
this advancement we were able to suffice
the needs of society through stored energy.
His practical lithium ion model changed the
technology sector in the world, nowadays all
the major devices require safe and efficient
batteries and they built it.
 Advantages of lithium ion batteries
1.They are epitome safety, currently they
are safest batteries in the commercial
market.

23. Chemistry assignment
2.Since the development in the field of
batteries they are lightest batteries with
efficiency.
3.Lithium ion batteries have more shelf
lives, which majorly needed in the
modern times.
4.Lithium ion batteries have lower self-
discharge rate.
5.Lithium ion batteries have very high
energy density this is its chief
advantages, much higher power is giver
by Li batteries.
Thus, lithium ion batteries changed the
lifestyle of humanity.

24. Chemistry assignment
BIBLIOGRAPHY-
Major research from Wikipedia.
Other sites are-
Thegaurdian.com
Google images
www.mdpi.com
forbes.com
applet-magic.com
timelines.issarce.com
www.nobleprize.org
researchgate.net
electronics-notes.com
youtube.com