[Complete Battery Mastery] ② Three Scientists Who Freed Humanity from Oil

Professor Goodenough Inspired by 1966 Ford Electric Car
Developed New Cathode Material Following Professor Whittingham's Research
Battery Research Declines in the West as Oil Prices Fall
Dr. Yoshino of Japan Discovers Carbon-Based Anode Material

Editor's NoteWe are now in the battery era. Batteries are found in almost everything, from mobile phones and laptops to electric vehicles. [Complete Battery Mastery] is a section created to easily convey the basics of batteries, their ecosystem, company information, industry trends, and outlook to general readers, students, and investors interested in the battery industry and related companies. It is published every Saturday. After the series, it will be published as a book.

Ford Was Faster Than Tesla

The undisputed leader of the current electric vehicle era is Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla. However, historically, the history of electric vehicles goes back well over 100 years. Without the pioneers of the past, neither Musk nor Tesla would exist today.

Scientists recognized the potential of batteries early on and devoted themselves to developing electric vehicles. Especially after Gaston Plant?, a Frenchman, developed the lead-acid battery in 1859, many attempts were made to use batteries as a power source. Among them, many consider the 'Electrowagen' built by German inventor Andreas Flocken in 1888 as the first electric car.

Electric car made by Fl?cken in 1888 (2011 reproduction). Source: Wikipedia

Since Karl Benz invented the first gasoline-powered internal combustion engine car in 1885, it was only three years apart. In the early 20th century, electric cars were dominant because they were easy to start and produced no exhaust, noise, or vibration. In 1912, there were 33,842 electric cars registered in the United States.

However, when Henry Ford began mass-producing affordable gasoline cars using the conveyor system in 1908, electric cars completely disappeared. Despite early popularity, electric cars could only travel 50 to 60 miles (80 to 96 km) on a single charge, requiring frequent recharging, which was a major drawback.

In a surprising move, Ford Motor Company announced plans to launch an electric car in 1966. Since Ford was the automaker that had driven electric cars out of the market, this announcement naturally attracted public attention. Ford also devised a new type of battery using sodium and sulfur as electrodes. This new sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery could store 15 times more energy than the existing lead-acid batteries.

Ford emphasized that an electric car using this battery could travel 200 km on a single charge. However, there was a critical drawback: the battery operated at 300 degrees Celsius. Naturally, concerns about the risk of high-temperature explosions were raised.

Ford announced its electric car plans because pollution had become a serious social issue in the 1960s. Rapid industrialization was achieved thanks to fossil fuels such as oil and coal, but environmental pollution caused by exhaust fumes also emerged as a side effect. Even Ford, who led the popularization of gasoline cars, had to take action. However, developing a stable and high-performance battery for electric cars was the biggest barrier.

"Suddenly, Everything Changed"

Ford's sodium-sulfur battery ultimately failed to be commercialized. However, Ford's proposal inspired many scientists. Among them was Professor John B. Goodenough, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 for his development of lithium-ion batteries.

In an interview with Steve Levine, a Quartz journalist and author of 'The Powerhouse,' Professor Goodenough recalled, "Everything suddenly changed. Batteries were no longer boring." He cited Ford's automotive research results as one of the reasons he switched to battery research. The 1973 oil crisis that shook the global economy and the intercalation research results of Dr. Stanley Whittingham, with whom he later shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, also greatly influenced him.

2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate
[Photo by Nobel Committee]

Professor Goodenough was a German-American born in Jena, Germany, in 1922. He passed away in June this year at the age of 100. He was 97 when he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After majoring in mathematics at Yale University, Goodenough completed his master's and doctoral degrees in physics at the University of Chicago. During World War II, he served as a meteorologist in the U.S. military. Later, he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Oxford University before moving to the University of Texas in 1986, where he devoted his life to advanced scientific research until his death. While at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, he also contributed to the development of RAM used in computers. Goodenough suffered from dyslexia as a child, which he said sparked his interest in mathematics and physics.

He began focusing on alternative energy after the 1970 oil crisis. He believed research was needed for new energy sources to replace oil, which causes environmental pollution and might run out someday. However, MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, which was supported by the U.S. Air Force, did not allow his research. At that time, Oxford University in the UK offered him a professorship in inorganic chemistry. Seeing it as an opportunity to fulfill his aspirations, he immediately moved to the UK.

Professor Goodenough paid close attention to the research results of Dr. Whittingham, a younger scientist. Dr. Whittingham, a researcher at ExxonMobil, developed lithium-ion batteries using the principle of intercalation but struggled to commercialize them.

Whittingham's lithium-ion battery differed from the ones we use today. He used titanium disulfide as the cathode and lithium metal as the anode. The lithium-ion batteries we use daily today use lithium compounds for the cathode and carbon compounds such as graphite for the anode.

When lithium metal is used as the anode, lithium ions moving to the anode during charging do not settle stably but grow in sharp, branch-like structures called dendrites. If these sharp lithium dendrites grow enough to pierce the separator, a short circuit occurs between the anode and cathode, leading to explosions. It is said that several explosions occurred in Whittingham's laboratory, requiring frequent visits from firefighters.

To solve this, Whittingham experimented with adding aluminum to lithium metal and changing the electrolyte. In 1976, he even announced a small lithium-ion battery that could operate in solar-powered watches for Swiss watchmakers.

However, in the 1980s, as oil prices stabilized, ExxonMobil's interest waned, and support for Whittingham was cut off.

The baton was passed to Professor Goodenough. He discovered that using lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode could produce much higher voltage. His battery recorded about 4 volts, roughly twice that of Whittingham's. In 1980, he reported to the academic community that he had discovered this new cathode material capable of producing lightweight yet powerful batteries.

However, in the West, interest in alternative energy sharply declined in the 1980s as oil prices dropped. Goodenough's discovery did not receive much attention at the time.

Secondary Batteries Completed in the Electronic Kingdom of Japan

While interest in alternative energy was fading in the West, a young scientist in a Japanese company's laboratory on the other side of the globe was diligently searching for new materials that would change the times.

Dr. Akira Yoshino, born in Suita, Japan, in 1948, majored in petrochemistry (master's degree) at Kyoto University and joined Asahi Kasei in 1972. He was immediately assigned to a research institute in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. His task was to find 'seed' technologies to create new products.

However, his efforts repeatedly ended in failure. Discovering new materials that met market needs and had never existed before was not easy. He became interested in lithium-ion batteries in 1981, his tenth year at Asahi Kasei, when he was 33 years old.

Yoshino initially aimed to develop a secondary battery using conductive polymer polyacetylene as the anode. Polyacetylene allows ions and electrons to pass electrochemically, making it a potential anode material for secondary batteries. However, he could not find a suitable cathode material.

Then, one day in 1982, while browsing various literature in the lab, he accidentally discovered Professor Goodenough's paper. He conceived a new concept of a secondary battery using lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode and polyacetylene as the anode. The following year, he promptly filed a patent and continued subsequent research.

However, when implementing it as an actual product, he encountered another limitation. Using polyacetylene as the anode made the battery too bulky. While searching for alternative materials, he discovered a special carbon fiber called VGCF (Vapor Grown Carbon Fiber).

The problem was that VGCF production was extremely limited. To create a popular secondary battery, a cheap and readily available anode material was needed. He found petroleum coke as a substitute. Thus, the lithium-ion battery applying lithium cobalt oxide to the cathode and petroleum coke to the anode was born in 1985. This became the basic structure of the lithium-ion batteries we use today.

Yoshino's lithium-ion battery contains only lithium ions, with no pure lithium metal. Also, the coke anode material stably exchanges lithium ions, making it much safer than previous lithium-based batteries. In the 1990s, Japanese companies began applying lithium-ion batteries to electronic devices, marking the full-fledged start of the secondary battery era.

Thus, the prototype of the widely used lithium-ion battery today was born in a Japanese company. Given Japan's thriving electronics industry, it may be a natural outcome that lithium-ion batteries originated there. Since then, lithium-ion batteries have grown alongside the information technology (IT) industry.

- Steve Levine, 'The Powerhouse'
- Akira Yoshino, 'The Story of Nobel Laureate Yoshino's Invention of the Lithium-Ion Battery'
- Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences website
- Wikipedia
- Jeong Kyung-yoon, Lee Sang-min, Lee Young-gi, Jeong Hoon-gi, 'Conditions for Winning Secondary Batteries'