Last Updated : 27 Jun, 2023 10:23 AM
Published : 27 Jun 2023 10:23 AM
Last Updated : 27 Jun 2023 10:23 AM
New York: John Goodenough was one of the revolutionaries in the technology world who designed the lithium-ion battery. He passed away last Sunday (June 25) aged 100. It is noteworthy that he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019.
Lithium-ion batteries have brought a huge change in our daily life. These batteries can almost be said to be the power that drives today’s digital age. Lithium ion batteries are used in many things like mobile phones, laptops, face makers and electric vehicles. These have led to state-of-the-art technology without connectivity. We use these to generate energy as an alternative to fossil fuels like petrol and coal. It also helps to conserve solar energy which is environmentally friendly.
Lithium-ion batteries came into use in the market in 1991. But this battery was developed 20 years before that. Dr. Stanley Whittingham was the first to initiate that effort. Dr. Stanley Whitingham embarked on this research in the early 1970s. He designed the first working lithium battery.
He was followed by Dr. Goodenough, who discovered how to harness the immense power of the lithium battery more gently. It gave way later in many ways. He has served as a professor at the University of Texas for nearly 40 years. He died on Sunday in Austin, the capital of Texas. The university did not share the cause of his death.
John Goodenough was born in Jena, Germany in 1922. He completed his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, USA. He began his research career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became involved in lithium-ion battery development when he was head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford in England. Joined University of Texas in 1986.
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