Nobel chemistry prize goes to battery pioneers who made mobile revolution possible

Record ID: 1435933

  • Title: Nobel chemistry prize goes to battery pioneers who made mobile revolution possible
  • Date: 9th October 2019
  • Summary: NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2019 14:01
  • Keywords: Nobel Nobel prize chemistry Royal Academy of Sciences John Goodenough Stanley Whittingham Akira Yoshino
  • Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
  • City: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
  • Country: Sweden
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA005B0DLLC7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Three scientists won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday (October 9) for developing and refining rechargeable lithium-ion batteries which made the global information technology, mobile and fossil-fuel free revolutions possible.
    American John Goodenough, at 97, became the oldest winner of a Nobel prize and shares the 9 million Swedish crown (906,000 U.S. dollar) award equally with Stanley Whittingham from Britain and Akira Yoshino of Japan, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
    In its citation, the academy's Nobel committee said lithium-ion batteries had revolutionised our lives since they first entered the market in 1991, laying the "foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society, and are of the greatest benefit to humankind".
    Whittingham developed the first functional lithium battery in the early 1970s. Goodenough doubled the battery's potential in the following decade and Yoshino eliminated pure lithium from the battery, making it much safer to use.
    Peter Somfai, a professor of organic chemistry and a member of the Nobel committee for chemistry, said it was clear why the three won, and that the technology would be further refined in the future for example by allowing energy to be produced in one place and then used in another.
    The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were created and funded in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901.
    The Nobel prizes for medicine and physics were awarded earlier this week. The awards for literature, peace and economics will be announced in the next few days.
    (Production: Bjorn Lockstrom, Ilze Filks, Louisa Naks)
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