John Goodenough, Co-Inventor Of Rechargeable Li-ion Battery Inventor And Oldest Winner Of Nobel Prize, Passes Away

John Bannister Goodenough, whose pioneering work in electrochemistry helped usher in the era of the rechargeable lithium-ion battery, has passed away, The Hindu Business Line reported, citing one of the scientist's students.. He was just a month short of turning 101.

Along with Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, Goodenough was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 for their work on "the development of lithium-ion batteries.". Goodenough was the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize

"Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized our lives and are used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles," said the committee in the citation.

"Through their work, this year's Chemistry Laureates have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society," it added.

Goodenough is widely regarded as the co-inventor of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. While Goodenough developed the lithium-cobalt-oxide cathode (the positive side of the battery), Akira Yoshino developed carbon anode (the negative side of the battery). The battery development by Goodenough and Yoshini was built on the work of Whittingham, who had earlier discovered that lithium could be stored within sheets of titanium sulphide.

Despite being the co-inventor of lithium-ion batteries, Goodenough repeatedly drew attention to its serious drawbacks.

Since lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes to transport the lithium ions between the anode (the negative side of the battery) and the cathode (the positive side of the battery). If a battery cell is charged too quickly, it can cause dendrites or “metal whiskers” to form and cross through the liquid electrolytes, causing a short circuit that can lead to explosions and fires.

In 2017, a team of engineers led Goodenough, who was then serving as a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, developed the first all-solid-state battery cells that could lead to safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for handheld mobile devices, electric cars and stationary energy storage. The use of an alkali-metal anode (lithium, sodium or potassium) — which isn’t possible with conventional batteries —potentially increases the energy density of a cathode and delivers a long cycle life.

In 2020, Goodenough, along with several members of his lab at University of Texas, launched a partnership with EnergyX, an energy technology company, in an effort to radically rethink the approach to energy storage.

After serving in the US Army as a meteorologist in World War II, Goodenough went to the University of Chicago to complete a master's degree and was awarded a Ph.D. in physics in 1952. He subsequently worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oxford University in the UK.

Goodenough is also widely credited for his work seminal work in computer random-access memory.