Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019
Three scientists have been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries. The lithium-ion battery is a lightweight, sturdy, and rechargeable battery that is used in everything from mobile phones to laptops to electric cars.
John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino share the prize for their work on these rechargeable devices, which are used for portable electronics.
Sara Snogerup Linse, Nobel Prize Committee Member from Lund University, said that the laureates had developed lightweight batteries of high enough potential to be useful in many applications.
In addition to their use in electric vehicles, the rechargeable devices could also store significant amounts of energy from renewable sources, such as solar and wind power.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019- The Research By Scientists
The foundation of the lithium-ion battery was laid during the oil crisis of the 1970s. M Stanley Whittingham, 77, who was born in Nottingham, UK, worked to develop energy > technologies that did not rely on fossil fuels.
He discovered an energy-rich material called titanium disulfide, which he used to make a cathode in a lithium battery. He made the anode from metallic lithium. This has a strong preference for releasing electrons, making it very suitable for use in cells.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 winner John B Goodenough, who is American but was born in Germany, predicted that the cathode could be improved if it was made from a metal oxide, rather than sulfide. He used cobalt oxide to boost the lithium battery’s potential to four volts: John B Goodenough, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
With Goodenough’s cathode as a basis, Akira Yoshino, 71, created the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1985. Yoshino, who was born in Osaka, Japan, works for the Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University.
Prof Ramström, a Nobel committee member from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell said that the lithium-ion batteries have high energy efficiency.
Prof Dame Carol Robinson, president of the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry, said that the pioneering research had paved the way for everything from the mobile phone in your pocket to the electric vehicles and home energy storage of the future.
Prof Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the Royal Society, said that Scientific breakthroughs are rarely a solo endeavor. Prof Ramakrishnan noted that the three scientists well deserved the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019.
Author: Rahul Mishra
