Analysis: Goodenough's work on co-inventing the first lithium-ion battery led to him being awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
"Don't you know that anyone who has ever done anything significant in physics has already done it by the time he was your age?". It was 1946 and World War II veteran John B. Goodenough had just arrived on the campus of the University of Chicago as a US army veteran. The 24 year old was excited about returning to university to pursue a PhD in physics.
That dismissive remark made by a passing professor did not stop Goodenough. In 2019, 73 years later, he was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for co-inventing the first lithium-ion battery and became the oldest recipient of the Prize ever. Goodenough passed away Sunday, a month shy of his 101st birthday.
From the Nobel Prize, John B Goodenough's Nobel lecture in 2019
Our modern world of smart phones, laptops and electric cars is powered by lithium-ion batteries. Can you imagine a world without this amazing technology? Goodenough's contribution to the relatively recent invention of the lithium-ion battery has transformed the modern world.
Goodenough was born in Germany in 1922 to American parents who then moved back to the US. Like many pupils, he struggled in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. As a pupil, he was attracted to mathematics, sciences, Latin and Greek. He excelled in these subjects, which got him into Yale University to pursue a degree in mathematics.
Everything changed with World War II and he joined the US army as a meteorologist. A meteorologist was a crucial role in a world at war as the success of military campaigns were, and are, often at the mercy of the weather. Goodenough was demobbed in 1946 and went to the University of Chicago. Subsequently, Goodenough spent many years at MIT where he worked on developing memory capabilities for early computers.
From Royal Society of Chemistry, interview with John B Goodenough
Goodenough and batteries
The dominant rechargeable battery for much of Goodenough's life, and up until recent times, was the heavy and short-lived lead-acid battery, which was invented by Gaston Planté in the mid-1800s. Lead-acid batteries have done a great job starting our engines, while nickel batteries, with contributions from Thomas Edison, have powered our electrical tools. However, it is fair to say that progress in rechargeable battery technology was limited for over 100 years.
Very simply, a battery has a positive terminal, known as the cathode, and a negative terminal, known as an anode. When the current flows outside the battery to power our electrical devices, an electrical charge known as an ion, flows within the battery between the electrodes to complete the circuit.
In the 1970s, there had been a lot of work and research into batteries using lithium ions. Lithium is the third element in the periodic table and is the lightest metal, but is also very volatile and explosive. The fossil fuel giant Exxon was funding research into batteries, and one of its scientists, Stanley Whittingham, invented a battery with a solid lithium anode and a cathode built such that it could house the lithium ions travelling from the anode. However, the voltage from this battery was low at two volts, similar to that of a lead-acid battery, and the battery was very explosive due to the solid lithium.
From Texas Engineering, Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner John B. Goodenough's work at University of Texas
Goodenough had moved to Oxford University to work on batteries, where he made the next great breakthrough by using cobalt oxide for the cathode. This made the battery safer and raised the battery voltage to 4 volts, twice that of lead-acid and very useful for electronics.
The next step in the inventing process was by Akira Yoshino who kept the Goodenough cobalt-based cathode, but replaced the solid lithium anode with graphite, just like the lead in your pencil, which would house the lithium. This contribution maintained the high battery voltage of Goodenough’s battery but made the battery even safer.
Sony was to productize the first lithium-ion batteries in the early 1990s. Within a decade, they became the dominant technology in our phones and laptops, and by the 2000s appeared in the prototype electric vehicles of that decade. By 2023, the technology is ubiquitous and has transformed our lives. Thus, Whittingham, Goodenough and Yoshino received the Noble Prize in 2019.
The unassuming and kind Goodenough contributed enormously to the modern age. He retired from Oxford at 65 years old and took a new job at the University of Texas in Austin, where he has been researching, teaching and inventing up until recently. He was a devoted Episcopalian (similar to Anglican or Church of Ireland) and will be buried from his local church. Requiscat in pace.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
