I know I am an old fart.  But, it is hard for me to realize that my kids don’t really know the “pleasure” of finding just the right battery for their flashlight, their radio, or other electronic devices.

Because nowadays, everything is a lithium ion battery.  Not only has this made it possible for us to carry cell phones smaller than a deck of cards, but it affords us the ability to utilize solar and wind power (which require electrical storage for when the wind doesn’t blow or it’s nighttime) and electric cars.

When I was a kid, everyone (and his grandmother) used to make a voltaic cell.  A copy of the first battery invented by Volta some 219 years ago. (A battery is simply a device where electrons flow from the anode [negative electrode] to the cathode [positive electrode], producing a stable electrical current.) I can’t recall how many kids brought those in for their required project for the science fair.  (Not me.  I had more creative [dangerous?] concepts to play.)My kids also don’t know the pleasure afforded kids in the 50’s who carried a transistor radio to listen to Cousin Brucie, Allan Freed, or Murray the K.  (My folks were still using their Admiral shelf radios.  Nowadays, music is heard on our phones via Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, Google, etc.)

And, I was blessed by the inventor of the dry cell battery, Samuel Ruben.  Mr. Ruben (who began his tinkering as a teenager) decided that he was going to sponsor young kids who wanted to become chemical engineers, thinking that would help the battery business- and every other chemically related industry in the world.  I had the honor of being the first Samuel Ruben Scholar of Chemical Engineering.

But, times change.  Now, Dr. Jon Goodenough (yes, that’s REALLY his name) became the oldest gentleman to win the Nobel Prize, at the age of 97.

The funny part (I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of funny stories how folks found out they were awarded the Nobel prize) is that he was receiving another prestigious award at the time- the Copley Medal.  This prize, the oldest one around for science (since 1731), is granted by the (British) Royal Society for the greatest development in any science, alternating between the physical and biological sciences every year.  Two great honors in one day, proving he was more than ‘good enough’.

Dr. Goodenough (U Texas, Austin) shared his award with Drs. Stanley Whittingham (SUNY at Binghamton) and Akira Yoshino (Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan).  All 3 worked with this highly reactive element (lithium), so capable of reacting with other materials that it must be stored in oil.

While Whittingham made the first battery , it was Dr. Goodenough who found the ways to double the chemical potential of the device to four volts.  He did so by altering the cathode (positively charged portion of the battery), switching it to cobalt dioxide from titanium disulfide. [Both compounds have similar chemical structures.]  Dr. Yoshino concentrated on the anode portion, incorporating lithium ions into petroleum coke (carbonaceous material) instead of solid metal.  This made the batteries of less weight, less expensive to produce, safer- and most importantly, capable of manifold charge-recharge cycles.

Another few tidbit about  Dr. Goodenough.  He routinely lets loose with a trademark laugh (I still think mine is better).  And, he routinely asks cogent questions, driving to discern the key factors of the subject matter.

Mazal tov to them all.  I’m sure Samuel Ruben would be pleased to see the next generation of batteries coming to fruition.

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