US-UK-Japan trio win chemistry Nobel for lithium-ion battery

STOCKHOLM - AFP

Three researchers won the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Oct. 9 for the development of lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for smartphones and a fossil fuel-free society.

John Goodenough of the United States -- at 97 the oldest person to be awarded a Nobel prize -- Britain's Stanley Whittingham, and Japan's Akira Yoshino will share the nine million Swedish kronor (about $914,000 or 833,000 euros) prize equally, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

"This lightweight, rechargeable and powerful battery is now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles... (and) can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society," the jury said.

"Lithium batteries have revolutionized our lives since they first entered the market in 1991," it said, adding they were "of the greatest benefit to humankind."

Seeking an alternative source of power during the oil crisis of the 1970s, Whittingham discovered a way to harness the potential energy in lithium, a metal so light it floats on water.

He constructed a battery partly made of lithium that utilized the element's natural tendency to shed electrons, thereby transferring energy. However the battery was too unstable to be used. 

Goodenough built on Whittingham's prototype, substituting a different metal compound and doubling the potential energy of the battery to four volts. This paved the way for far more powerful and durable batteries in the future. 

In 1985, Yoshino instead used a carbon-based material that stores lithium ions, finally rendering the battery commercially viable. The culmination of the trio's research resulted in the most powerful, lightweight and rechargeable battery ever seen.

When asked what type of researcher he is, Yoshino told a Tokyo press conference that a good scientist needed two qualities.          "One thing is that you have to have a flexible brain. Flexibility. The other is tenacity. You stay persistent and never give up," he said.

Yoshino, 71, works at the Asahi Kasei Corporation in Tokyo and is a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan, while Goodenough holds the Cockrell Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Whittingham, 77, is a professor at the Binghamton University, State University of New York.

The trio will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

Last year, the honour went to US scientists Frances Arnold and George Smith and British researcher Gregory Winter for developing enzymes used for greener and safer chemistry and antibody drugs with less side effects.

Arnold was just the fifth woman to clinch chemistry's most prestigious honor since Marie Curie was honored in 1911.