Image courtesy of REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
Stanley Whittingham invented the lithium titanium disulfide battery while working at Exxon Corporation in 1972. In 2019, Whittingham was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Lithium-ion is now a household name. But it wouldn’t be without some fortunate twists of fate and a lot of perseverance.
It took just three months in the fall of 1972 for Stanley Whittingham to conjure up the concept of the drum set that changed the world. Whittingham, a 31-year-old Oxford-educated chemist, thought he saw a technical revolution on the horizon.
Fifty years later, the story of his battery’s birth seems unlikely. Whittingham was young, fresh out of a postdoctoral program at Stanford University and working for Exxon Corp. in New Jersey. Ironically, their battery concept would not benefit Exxon. Its early applications included camcorders, laptops and cell phones, none of which had any remote links to Exxon. Later, his concept would end up powering electric cars around the world, serving as a direct competitor to Exxon’s oil. In retrospect, it seems impossible that Exxon could have supported such research. But happened.
Contents
Intercalation Chemistry
Whittingham’s work at Exxon evolved rapidly. He joined the company in September 1972, and within a few weeks he was working on a concept he had studied at Stanford. The concept involved inserting ions into the atomic lattice of certain metals and extracting those ions. It was called interleaving (pronounced “in-TURK-a-lay-shun”). “I said, ‘Hey, we can store energy here,'” he recalled in the book Long Hard Road: The Lithium-Ion Battery and the Electric Car. “And that’s where we got into electrochemical studies and then into batteries.”
He decided to build a battery using intercalation materials on both electrodes. First, he considered a variety of layered compounds and chose titanium for the battery’s cathode. Then came the decision that changed the history of science. For an anode, he initially looked at potassium, but decided it was too dangerous. He soon settled on a light, silvery, soft metal…lithium. Finally, he would use lithium in the battery’s anode and then in its electrolyte. The results were surprising. While the best batteries at the time operated at 1.3 volts, this new battery offered 2.4 volts. And, thanks to the science of interleaving, it was rechargeable. Working versions of the Whittingham lithium titanium disulfide battery were completed in December 1972.
A month later, Whittingham was summoned by Exxon’s corporate managers to their New York offices. “I was asked to speak to a subcommittee on the Exxon board and explain what I was doing,” Whittingham recalled. “Someone in the survey told them what was going on,” he said in Long Hard Road. “So I went over there and explained—five minutes, ten at most. And within a week they decided, yes, they wanted to invest in it.”
That Exxon should have invested in a technology that would compete with oil now seems incredible. But the world was different in 1972. The scientific consensus at the time was that the Earth would run out of oil in 50 years. By 2000, scientists said, the availability of oil would be in serious decline. Also, the culture of corporate research was different in 1972. Big companies like Exxon, for example, believed deeply in the concept of fundamental research—science for science’s sake. Scientific articles and patents were the goal. If a breakthrough were made, it was assumed that the company would figure out how to benefit from it.
That was the case with Whittingham. He was encouraged to keep going. He did so, and Exxon filed a patent in Belgium in 1973. When an oil crisis hit the United States in 1973, Exxon’s sense of urgency grew. By 1975, his lawyers were applying for a flurry of US patents on the Whittingham battery.
To be sure, the Whittingham battery wasn’t called lithium-ion, nor did it use the same chemistry as today’s products. But it operated the same fundamental mechanism – lithium ions inserted into a host electrode. A small button cell version of the battery was manufactured and employed in a “perpetual solar wristwatch” sold by a Swiss company, Ebauches SA. There, it worked perfectly. Furthermore, it was almost impossible to look at this new battery and not think about the future potential of an electric car.
Still, Exxon slowly lost interest in the lithium titanium disulfide battery. The oil crisis disappeared, wristwatch enforcement was considered insignificant, and corporate priorities shifted. Eventually, the company’s managers decided to sell the technology. The battery has been licensed to three companies – one in Asia, one in Europe and one in the US. “There wasn’t much discussion,” Whittingham said years later. “One day they just said, ‘Let’s stop doing this.’
Saved by the Camcorder
But the rechargeable lithium battery wasn’t dead. In 1980, John Goodenough, a 58-year-old American working at the University of Oxford in England, improved the Whittingham battery with a new cathode. The Goodenough cathode was called lithium cobalt oxide, and it offered an incredible four volts. Now the battery was even better – more energetic and even rechargeable. There was nothing like it on the commercial market.
Image courtesy UPI / Alamy Stock Photo
John Goodenough was co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of the lithium cobalt oxide battery. At 97, Goodenough was the oldest Nobel laureate of all time. He is currently working as a professor of mechanics, materials science, and electrical engineering at the University of Texas.
But when Goodenough contacted battery makers in the UK, US and mainland Europe, he found no interest. The world, it seemed, didn’t want the rechargeable lithium battery. Even his employer, Oxford University, refused to pay for a patent. To obtain patent protection, Goodenough had to travel to a government laboratory in nearby Harwell, England, and sign his rights to the invention. The Harwell lab patented the technology. So the patent was idle.
Years later, however, Harwell lab received an unexpected call from Sony Corp. in Japan, wanting to discuss a licensing agreement on a patent that had been gathering dust for eight years. The call surprised everyone in the lab. At first, scientists in the laboratory could not imagine which patent had sparked interest. Soon they realized that Sony was citing an old patent entitled “Electrochemical Cell with Fast Ion Conductors”. It was John Goodenough’s patent.
Sony engineers wanted the patent because they planned to build batteries for their new camcorder, called the Handycam. Using the rechargeable lithium cell, they reasoned, the Handycam could offer a lighter weight and longer runtime. His plan was to use Goodenough’s cobalt oxide cathode and couple it with a petroleum coke anode developed by Asahi Chemical in Japan.
Finally, the rechargeable lithium battery was on its way. Sony dubbed it the lithium-ion battery, introduced it on the Handycam, and offered it to the market starting in 1991. Soon, the battery was serving in laptops and cell phones. In 1998, Nissan Motor Co. put lithium ions in a limited-edition electric car called Altra and began drawing up bigger plans. Other automakers followed, and the lithium-ion battery became a $30 billion-a-year growing business.
Neither Whittingham nor Goodenough made any money from their inventions. Goodenough signed off on the rights to his lithium cobalt oxide chemistry in 1980, making it impossible for him to personally profit. Whittingham Lithium Titanium Disulfide was only used in the Ebauches wristwatch and never for other applications.
In 2019, both scientists were co-winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Akira Yoshino, who co-developed the petroleum coke anode for Asahi Chemical in Japan. At that time, 47 years had passed since Whittingham’s invention and 39 had passed since Goodenough’s development.
Image courtesy of TT News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
Akira Yoshino, who developed the petroleum coke anode for the lithium-ion battery, was a co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
On his desk, Whittingham has a solar clock powered by a lithium titanium disulfide battery. He built the clock in 1977. It still works today. Your watch is the only remaining application to use this particular chemistry.
Today, he says he understands why his chemistry didn’t make a huge commercial success in the 1970s. “The market (for batteries) just wouldn’t be big enough,” he said in Long Hard Road. “Our invention was too early.”
Which battery is the future?
Lithium-Air: Lithium-Air has an energy of 1300 Wh/Kg which makes it equivalent to gasoline. Lithium-air batteries typically use a pure lithium anode and some form of porous carbon at the cathode.
What will replace lithium batteries in the future? As a result, many researchers are developing aluminum-based battery technology that can replace lithium. Some of them even perform better than conventional batteries. Australian company Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) claims its aluminum-ion battery charges 60 times faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries.
What are the batteries of the future?
5 new battery technologies that will change the future
- NanoBolt Lithium Tungsten Batteries.
- Zinc-manganese oxide batteries.
- Organosilicon electrolytic batteries.
- Gold nanowire gel electrolytic batteries.
- TankTwo String Cell⢠batteries.
What is the next big battery technology?
Solid State Batteries Can Replace Lithium Ion Cells In addition to sodium ion, solid state battery technology can replace lithium ion cells. Startups developing solid-state batteries call lithium-ion legacy technology, pushing the limits of advances in power density as the demand for higher performance increases.
What is the battery that could change the world?
In short, lithium-sulfur batteries can enable a huge variety of activities to go electric, making net zero emissions much more achievable. Amazingly, it gets even better. Lithium, sulfur and other materials that make up this new battery are plentiful across the Earth.
What is the next best battery technology?
Close cousins to rechargeable lithium-ion cells widely used in portable electronics and electric cars, lithium-metal batteries hold great promise as next-generation energy storage devices. Compared to lithium-ion devices, lithium-metal batteries store more energy, charge faster, and weigh considerably less.
Who is the leading company in battery technology?
Leading battery supplier CATL has expanded its market share from 32% in 2021 to 34% in 2022. A third of the world’s EV batteries come from the Chinese company. CATL supplies lithium-ion batteries to Tesla, Peugeot, Hyundai, Honda, BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
What is the latest breakthrough in battery technology?
Researchers develop new technique that charges EV battery in just 10 minutes. Summary: A breakthrough in electric vehicle battery design allowed a charging time of 10 minutes for a typical EV battery. This is a record-breaking combination of a shorter charge time and more power gained for greater travel range.
What battery will replace lithium?
The solution may be sodium ion batteries. Sodium ion technology does not consume scarce resources – and its production does not require rare lithium salts – plain table salt is sufficient. However, sodium is three times heavier than lithium, which means sodium-ion batteries are also heavier.
What is the battery that could change the world?
In short, lithium-sulfur batteries can enable a huge variety of activities to go electric, making net zero emissions much more achievable. Amazingly, it gets even better. Lithium, sulfur and other materials that make up this new battery are plentiful across the Earth.
What is the most promising battery technology?
Sodium-ion batteries are very promising. They are energy-dense, non-flammable, and work well in cooler temperatures, and sodium is cheap and plentiful. Also, sodium-based batteries will be more environmentally friendly and even less expensive than lithium-ion batteries are now becoming.
Is the forever battery A hoax?
The Final Word on the Forever Battery Overview: The technical progress being made in solid-state battery chemistry is not being overstated. It’s legit. Is happening. And in the years to come, this emerging technology will forever change the electric vehicle industry.
What company is building the Forever battery?
2. Forever Battery is made by a company called Forever Battery. Forever Battery is a company that manufactures batteries. The company is headquartered in the United States and was founded in 2008.
What company holds the patent on the Forever battery?
QuantumScape: The Company Solving the Challenges of “Battery Forever”. While the theory behind solid-state batteries is super exciting, the application of these next-gen batteries has been essentially non-existent so far. Because? Two big challenges.
Is QuantumScape the battery company Forever? In late 2021, QuantumScape illustrated that its forever battery ran in 4-layer formats up to 800 charge cycles. A quarter later, the company scaled successful results for 10-layer batteries up to 800 cycles.
What company has the patent on Quantum Glass battery?
Best Quantum Glass Battery Stocks: Toyota (TM) The company’s progress in the battery space is underscored by the number of patents. Toyota currently holds 1,331 solid-state battery patents. Panasonic (OTCMKTS:PCRFY) is in second place with 445 patents.
What company holds the patent for the solid-state battery?
TOKYO — Toyota Motor is by far the top patent holder for solid-state batteries, a Nikkei study shows, demonstrating how Japanese companies have dominated the race to develop the next-generation power source for electric vehicles.
What’s the name of the company that’s making the Forever battery?
Thus, QuantumScape addressed the two biggest shortcomings of solid-state battery chemistry. And it has positioned itself to create a new class of EV batteries that are much cheaper, last much longer and charge much faster than traditional lithium-ion batteries.
What company is behind the quantum battery?
Quantum Glass Battery Stocks: QuantumScape (QS) In addition, it has partnered with German automaker Volkswagen (OTCMKTS:VWAGY), which expects to use its cells by 2025. In addition, the two companies are working together to develop a gigafactory for manufacture of quantum glass batteries.
What is the name of the company that makes the Forever battery?
2. Forever Battery is made by a company called Forever Battery. Forever Battery is a company that manufactures batteries. The company is headquartered in the United States and was founded in 2008.
What is the forever battery Stock called?
NEW YORK and OSLO, Norway and LUXEMBOURG, October 28, 2022–FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) (“FREYR”), developer of next-generation, clean battery cell production capacity, will publish a press release detailing the third quarter 2022 results and hold a conference call on November 14, 2022.
Is the forever battery for real?
And yes, they can allow electric vehicles to travel thousands of miles without needing to recharge. That’s why solid-state batteries are dubbed by experts as “forever batteries”. And they are the critical technology needed to propel the Electric Vehicle Revolution into its next phase of supercharged growth.
What company is the forever battery?
Thus, QuantumScape addressed the two biggest shortcomings of solid-state battery chemistry. And it has positioned itself to create a new class of EV batteries that are much cheaper, last much longer and charge much faster than traditional lithium-ion batteries.
Who has the patent on the Forever battery?
Gene Berdichevsky was Tesla employee #7, where he helped develop the batteries for the iconic Roadster and Model S. Over the past decade, he was CEO of Sila Nano, where among his projects is the “forever Battery, an ion battery. of lithium that would last three decades.
Who owns the most battery patents?
The study found that Toyota Motor is by far the top patent holder for solid-state batteries with 1,331 known patents.
What company is developing the Forever battery?
Thus, QuantumScape addressed the two biggest shortcomings of solid-state battery chemistry. And it has positioned itself to create a new class of EV batteries that are much cheaper, last much longer and charge much faster than traditional lithium-ion batteries.
Who holds the patent for solid-state batteries?
TOKYO — Toyota Motor is by far the top patent holder for solid-state batteries, a Nikkei study shows, demonstrating how Japanese companies have dominated the race to develop the next-generation power source for electric vehicles.
What country is richest in lithium?
Lithium reserves by country Chile has the largest lithium reserves in the world by a large margin. Australia comes in second with estimated reserves of 5.7 million metric tons in 2021. Mineral reserves are defined as minerals that were extractable or producible at the time of the estimate.
Who has the world’s largest supply of lithium? Australia is the world’s largest producer of lithium, accounting for nearly half of global production in 2020. Bolivia, Chile and Argentina (the “Lithium Triangle”) have the largest estimated resources, with nearly 50 million tonnes of lithium among three countries.
Is Ukraine rich in lithium?
According to preliminary estimates, researchers believe Ukraine is a treasure trove of lithium, containing around 500,000 tonnes of the “non-renewable mineral that makes renewable energy possible”. due to its efficient energy storage by …
What country has the most lithium?
At 8 million tons, Chile has the largest known lithium reserves in the world. This puts the South American country ahead of Australia (2.7 million tonnes), Argentina (2 million tonnes) and China (1 million tonnes). In Europe, Portugal has smaller amounts of the valuable raw material.
What is the Ukraine rich in?
Ukraine has extremely rich and complementary mineral resources in high concentrations and very close to each other. The country has abundant reserves of coal, iron ore, natural gas, manganese, salt, oil, graphite, sulfur, kaolin, titanium, nickel, magnesium, wood and mercury.
How much lithium comes from Ukraine?
And, as the journal Scientific Collection Interconf has revealed, Ukrainian deposits can reach 500,000 tons of lithium oxide, in the form of petalite, spodumene or lithium carbonate.
Is the US rich in lithium?
Much of the world’s lithium comes from South America and Australia, and China dominates the world’s lithium-ion battery supply chain. The US produces less than 2% of the world’s lithium supply, although it has about 4% of the reserves. The largest reserves in the world are in Chile.
Is the US running out of lithium?
Because lithium is not an infinite resource. In fact, according to Kipping, once EVs dominate the car market, it’s about 70 years of lithium before identified global reserves run out. After that, we would have to take lithium out of the sea, which is a much more expensive proposition.
Where does America get its lithium?
The IEA says that more than 80% of the world’s lithium is mined in Australia, Chile and China, which alone controls more than half of the world’s processing and refining. The US has a single open lithium mine in Nevada and imports most of its supply from Argentina and Chile.
Does the US have a lot of lithium?
The US theoretically has enough lithium in the ground to meet the growing demand. The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the US has 750,000 tonnes of economically recoverable lithium in 2021.
Which countries are richest in lithium?
Lithium Reserves: Top 4 Countries (Updated 2022)
- Chile. Lithium reserves: 9,200,000 MT. …
- Australia. Lithium reserves: 3,800,000 MT. …
- Argentina. Lithium reserves: 2,200,000 MT. …
- China. Lithium reserves: 1,500,000 MT.
What is the largest lithium mine in the world?
The Greenbushes Lithium Mine is an open pit mining operation located in Western Australia and is the largest hard rock lithium mine in the world. It is located south of the city of Greenbushes, Western Australia.
Which country has the most untapped lithium?
Chile has 9.2 million tons of lithium in total. As a result, it is first on the list of lithium reserves by country by some distance. However, there are some other countries that also have significant lithium reserves. Australia has the second largest lithium reserves in the world, with 5.7 million tonnes.
Which company invented the lithium-ion battery in the 1970s?
British chemist M. Stanley Whittingham, then a researcher at ExxonMobil, first reported on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery (precursor to modern lithium-ion batteries) in the 1970s.
Who invented the battery in the 1970s? During the oil crisis of the 1970s, Stanley Whittingham, an English chemist working for Exxon Mobile at the time, began to explore the idea of a new battery – one that could recharge itself in a short period of time and perhaps lead to fossil-free energy one day.
Did Exxon invent the lithium-ion battery?
There will be many traditional lithium-ion batteries for sale. None, however, will be sold by Exxon – although the company, essentially, invented them. “Exxon started lithium-ion batteries in 1972,” Stan Whittingham tells Barron’s.
Who invented lithium-ion battery Exxon?
M. Stanley Whittingham. In the 1970s, Dr. Whittingham was working at ExxonMobil’s corporate research lab in Clinton, New Jersey, when he created the first examples of a radical new technology: the rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Who invented the lithium-ion battery?
Dr. Yoshino invented and patented the world’s first lithium-ion battery pack and has continually worked to improve the technology ever since. He has secured over 60 patents in lithium-ion battery technology during his career.
Who is the largest lithium-ion battery producer?
Leading battery supplier CATL has expanded its market share from 32% in 2021 to 34% in 2022. A third of the world’s EV batteries come from the Chinese company. CATL supplies lithium-ion batteries to Tesla, Peugeot, Hyundai, Honda, BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
What company invented lithium-ion batteries?
A lithium-ion battery prototype was developed by Akira Yoshino in 1985, based on earlier research by John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, Rachid Yazami, and Koichi Mizushima during the 1970s and 1980s, and then a commercial lithium-ion battery lithium was developed by a team at Sony and Asahi Kasei led by Yoshio Nishi in 1991.
Who holds the patent for the lithium-ion battery?
On June 30, Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation received a revolutionary patent on its cutting-edge lithium-ion battery technology for cordless power tools.
When was the first lithium-ion battery invented?
In 1976, the first viable lithium-based battery was patented by British chemist Michael Stanley Whittingham. Whittingham’s breakthrough was the battery’s low weight, high energy density and its ability to work at room temperature.
Who invented the first lithium-ion battery?
Dr. Yoshino invented and patented the world’s first lithium-ion battery pack and has continually worked to improve the technology ever since. He has secured over 60 patents in lithium-ion battery technology during his career.
Comments are closed.