Goodenough, Nobel laureate who gave the world Li-ion batteries, passes away

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Msc

Context:

John Bannister Goodenough, the American co-inventor of Lithium-ion batteries and a co-winner of 2019 Nobel prize for Chemistry, has passed away. He was just a month short of turning 101.

About J. B. Goodenough:

John Goodenough was born to American parents in Jena, Germany.
After studying mathematics at Yale University, he served in the US Army during the Second World War as a meteorologist.
He then studied at the University of Chicago and received a doctorate in physics in 1952. He subsequently worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oxford University in the UK.
He had been a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
In 2008, Goodenough wrote his autobiography, Witness to Grace, which he called “my personal history”. The book touches upon science and spirituality.

Contribution of J. B. Goodenough:

British-American scientist Stan Whittingham, who shared the Nobel prize with Goodenough, was the first to reveal that lithium can be stored within sheets of titanium sulphide.
Goodenough perfected it with a cobalt-based cathode to create a product that today touches nearly everyone’s life.
Goodenough also played a significant role in the development of Random Access Memory (RAM) for computers.

About Li-ion Batteries:

A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery.
Li-ion batteries use an intercalated (Intercalation is the reversible inclusion or insertion of a molecule into materials with layered structures) lithium compound as one electrode material, compared to the metallic lithium used in a non-rechargeable lithium battery.
The battery consists of an electrolyte, which allows for ionic movement, and the two electrodes are the constituent components of a lithium-ion battery cell.
Lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge and back when charging.

Lithium-ion Battery Applications:

Electronic gadgets, Telecommunication, Aerospace, Industrial applications.
Lithium-ion battery technology has made it the favourite power source for electric and hybrid electric vehicles.

Disadvantages of Li-ion Batteries:

Long charging times.
Safety issues as instances of batteries catching fires have been there.
Expensive to manufacture.
While the Li-ion batteries are seen as sufficiently efficient for applications such as phones and laptops, in the case of EVs, these cells still lack the range that would make them a viable alternative to internal combustion engines.