Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 Awarded to Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino for Lithium-Ion Battery Development

Stockholm, Sweden · 9 October 2019

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly to John B. Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin, M. Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University, and Akira Yoshino of Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University, "for the development of lithium-ion batteries." The prize of 9 million Swedish krona will be shared equally among the three laureates.

The Nobel Committee recognized the lithium-ion battery as a technology that has "revolutionised our lives" since entering the market in 1991, powering everything from mobile phones and laptops to electric vehicles, while also enabling the storage of energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind power.

A Three-Stage Discovery Spanning Decades

The development of the lithium-ion battery was not a single breakthrough but rather a chain of innovations spanning from the 1970s oil crisis to commercial production in 1991. Each laureate contributed a critical layer to the technology.

Whittingham's Foundation: The First Lithium Battery

The foundation was laid during the oil crisis in the 1970s. Stanley Whittingham worked on developing methods that could lead to fossil fuel-free energy technologies while researching superconductors. He discovered an extremely energy-rich material, which he used to create an innovative cathode in a lithium battery. This cathode was made from titanium disulphide, which at a molecular level has spaces that can house — intercalate — lithium ions.

The battery's anode was partially made from metallic lithium, which has a strong drive to release electrons. This resulted in a battery with a potential of just over two volts. However, metallic lithium is highly reactive, and the battery was too explosive to be viable for commercial use.

Goodenough's Breakthrough: Doubling the Potential

John Goodenough predicted that the cathode would have even greater potential if made using a metal oxide instead of a metal sulphide. After a systematic search, in 1980 he demonstrated that cobalt oxide with intercalated lithium ions could produce as much as four volts — double the potential of Whittingham's design. This was a critical breakthrough that would lead to much more powerful batteries.

Yoshino's Innovation: The First Commercially Viable Battery

With Goodenough's cathode as a basis, Akira Yoshino created the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1985. Rather than using reactive lithium in the anode, he used petroleum coke, a carbon material that, like the cathode's cobalt oxide, can intercalate lithium ions. This eliminated the dangerous metallic lithium from the anode, making the battery safe enough for everyday use.

The result was a lightweight, hardwearing battery that could be charged hundreds of times before its performance deteriorated. The critical advantage of lithium-ion batteries is that they are not based on chemical reactions that break down the electrodes, but on lithium ions flowing back and forth between the anode and cathode — a fundamentally more durable mechanism.

Transforming the Modern World

Lithium-ion batteries entered the commercial market in 1991 and have since become ubiquitous. They power the portable electronics that billions of people use daily to communicate, work, study, listen to music, and search for knowledge. They have enabled the development of long-range electric vehicles, fundamentally reshaping the automotive industry's trajectory away from fossil fuels.

Equally significant is their role in renewable energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries can store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, addressing the intermittency challenge that has long constrained renewable energy adoption. This capability is central to the transition toward a fossil fuel-free society.

The Laureates

John B. Goodenough was born in 1922 in Jena, Germany. He earned his PhD in 1952 from the University of Chicago and held the Virginia H. Cockrell Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

M. Stanley Whittingham was born in 1941 in the United Kingdom. He earned his PhD in 1968 from Oxford University and served as Distinguished Professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Akira Yoshino was born in 1948 in Suita, Japan. He earned his PhD in 2005 from Osaka University and served as Honorary Fellow at Asahi Kasei Corporation in Tokyo and Professor at Meijo University in Nagoya.

A Prize for Enabling Technology

The 2019 chemistry prize stands apart from many Nobel awards in that it recognized not a single discovery but the cumulative development of an enabling technology over nearly two decades. The Nobel Committee's framing — "they created a rechargeable world" — underscores the breadth of the technology's impact, from personal electronics to global energy systems.

The award also highlights the role of materials chemistry in addressing societal challenges. The transition from Whittingham's explosive prototype to Yoshino's safe, commercially viable product required not only scientific insight but also engineering pragmatism — the recognition that a technology's value lies in its real-world usability as much as its theoretical performance.

Image: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019. Credit: NobelPrize.org / The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Sources

• Nobel Prize press release, NobelPrize.org (9 October 2019): nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2019/press-release/
• Popular information: "They developed the world's most powerful battery" (PDF): nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/10/popular-chemistryprize2019.pdf
• Scientific background: "Lithium-ion batteries" (PDF): nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/10/advanced-chemistryprize2019.pdf
• University of Texas at Austin news: news.utexas.edu/2019/10/09/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-goes-to-john-goodenough
• Lindau Nobel blog: lindau-nobel.org/blog-a-rechargeable-world-2019-nobel-prize-in-chemistry