John Goodenough, ‘Father’ of Lithium-Ion Battery, Passes Away
AUSTIN, TX—John Goodenough, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Texas who pioneered lithium-ion battery technology, has passed away. He was 100 years old. Goodenough received the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his R&D efforts.
Goodenough identified and developed the critical cathode materials that provide the high-energy density needed to power electric vehicles, as well as portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets. In 1979, while working at the University of Oxford, he and his research team found that by using lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode of a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, it would be possible to achieve a high density of stored energy with an anode other than metallic lithium.