Lithium-Ion Battery

John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino, patents from 1985-89. The rechargeable cell that unplugged the world.

Overview

Goodenough's 1980 cobalt-oxide cathode at Oxford, unpatented by the university, met Yoshino's carbon anode at Asahi Kasei, patented from 1985; Sony commercialized the cell in 1991. Energy density doubled nickel-cadmium, and phones, laptops, then EVs became portable. Whittingham's earlier Exxon titanium-sulfide cell started the chemistry. The trio shared the 2019 chemistry Nobel. Global gigafactories now race the chemistry's limits. Patents in this family number in the tens of thousands, none alone the whole story.