John B Goodenough - The inventor of lithium - ion battery

John Goodenough -- invented a new battery technology at the age of 94, which is powering your mobile devices. Goodenough is a German-born American professor and solid-state physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. He is widely credited for the identification and development of the Li-ion rechargeable battery rules for determining the sign of the magnetic super exchange in materials.

He and his team created a low-cost solid-state battery that can store at least three times the energy of modern lithium-ion batteries. It is noncombustible and has long life cycle which can be fully charged within minutes.

Goodenough said – “Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted. We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries”.

The new battery is solid-state, which has no liquid components in the battery. Traditional lithium-ion batteries are made of a solid cathode and anode separated by a liquid electrolyte that conducts electricity. Solid-state battery replaces that liquid with a more efficient glass compound.

Instead of a lithium-ion, a solid state battery will charge within minutes instead of hours, which would be very beneficial for people charging their phones and electric cars.

Source : The University of Texas