John B. Goodenough gets honoured with Nobel for Lithium-ion batteries

At 97, John Goodenough wins Noble Prize in Chemistry and will share the award with Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for their contribution to the development of lithium-ion batteries.

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The oldest person to win a Nobel

As per reports, Goodenough is the oldest person to ever win a Nobel prize upstaging the previous record holder Arthur Ashkin, who won Nobel Prize in physics in 2018 at the age of 96. In a statement, John Goodenough said that he is honoured and humbled to win the Nobel Prize and he thanked all his friends for their support, assistance throughout his life. 

John Goodenough was born in 1922 in Jena, Germany and earned a PhD from University of Chicago in 1952, as per Nobel Foundation. Later, he went to Oxford University where he was the head of Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory and then at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently working.

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About Groundbreaking Discovery

Reports suggest that Whittingham developed the first functional lithium battery in early 1970 but it was Goodenough who managed to double the battery's potential in 1980 by using Lithium, cobalt oxide as the cathode of the lithium-ion battery. And by using Goodenough's cathode as a premise, Yoshino developed the first commercial lithium-ion battery. 

Nobel Foundation said that Lithium-ion batteries have changed the way we live our lives since they first entered the market in 1991 and that it laid the foundation for wireless, fossil-fuel-free society and are of the greatest benefit to mankind. From laptops to smart devices the lithium-ion batteries serve as the power source for some commonly used devices. Goodenough reportedly has said that he is extremely happy with lithium-ion batteries, which have helped communications across the world and that people use this for good and not evil. 

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