In our series, The ECS Community Adapts and Advances, Venkat Viswanathan shares stories of unexpected opportunities and inspiration. To help early career researchers make progress while labs are shuttered and new lab work isn’t possible, he is creating opportunities to showcase their latest work to academic and industry.

Online Battery Symposium Inspires Action

Venkat Viswanathan is a Faculty Fellow at the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He was scheduled to speak at the second Oxford Battery Modelling Symposium (OBMS) on March 16-17, 2020, just two days after CMU officially went remote. Most speakers could not travel—but they all participated when the event format switched to an interactive, real time webinar. Online participation included over 150 previously registered attendees. (more…)

New, low-cost batteries designed to last for a million miles of use in electric vehicles? Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk says the public can expect just that from the Model 3 sedan, expected to debut in China late this year or early next. 

According to Reuters, the new “million mile” battery—which relies on low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries, among others—was jointly developed with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL). Reuter’s sources say CATL plan on supplying Tesla with an improved long-life nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery whose cathode is 50% nickel and only 20% cobalt sometime next year. (more…)

John Goodenough’s Latest Battery

“Good enough” are just words in his last name, but not ones John B. Goodenough seems to live by. The 97-year-old, widely referred to as the “father of the lithium-ion batteries,” continues to awe the battery field. According to IEEE Spectrum, the 2019 Nobel Prize winner recently co-developed a rapid-charging, non-flammable, glass battery.

The high capacity battery charges in “minutes rather than hours,” according to Maria Helena Braga, professor of engineering at the University of Porto in Portugal, who worked with Goodenough to develop the solid state lithium rechargeable which uses a glass doped with alkali metals as the battery’s electrolyte. In addition, the solid state electrolyte is not flammable and preforms in both cold and hot weather. (more…)

The Electrochemical Society honors 2019 Nobel Chemistry Prize laureates, John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, by the launch of a new collection highlighting their scientific contributions published by ECS. In addition, ECS recognizes their contributions in the winter 2019 issue of Interface, now available online.

Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino have been deeply involved with The Electrochemical Society—as members, authors, editors, fellows, meeting participants and organizers, awardees, and more. Their publications with ECS, to varying degrees, trace the history of the development of the Lithium-ion battery, the revolutionary invention for which they shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (more…)

2019 Nobel Lectures in Chemistry

John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, co-winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, delivered their Nobel Lectures at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 8. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the three scientists’ seminal contributions in the development of the Lithium-ion battery. GoodenoughWhittingham, and Yoshino are longtime members of The Electrochemical Society (ECS); Goodenough and Whittingham are ECS Fellows.

The Nobel Foundation statutes require the Laureates to give lectures on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded.

John Goodenough had his pre-taped lecture delivered by Arumugam Manthiram on the topic of Designing Lithium-ion Cathodes.

Stanley Whittingham discussed The Origins of the Lithium Battery.

Akira Yoshino presented a Brief History and Future of Lithium-ion Batteries. (more…)

John B. Goodenough © Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

As John B. Goodenough looked on, his Nobel Lecture was delivered by Arumugam Manthiram at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, on December 8, 2019. Both Goodenough and Manthiram are fellows of The Electrochemical Society (ECS).

Nobel Laureates are required to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which they receive the award. Goodenough videotaped his lecture, “Designing Lithium-ion Battery Cathodes,” before December 8, then invited Manthiram to present it in Stockholm. Manthiram added explanations and comments between Goodenough’s slides and video, concluding with a summary of Goodenough’s research and its historical significance. The three classes of materials Goodenough discovered—layered oxide, spinel oxide, and polyanion oxide—still remain the only viable cathodes and the basis for future development. Goodenough pushed the boundaries of sold-state chemistry and physics. “His trump card is using chemistry and physics to solve engineering problems,” said Manthiram on another occasion. (more…)

Join ECS San Francisco Section on December 12 for a presentation by Yijin Liu:

An Integrated Multi-modal X-ray Microscopy for Energy Material Science

Yijin Liu
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Light Source
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Menlo Park, CA

When: Thursday, December 12, 2019
Time:
1700h
Where: Sakura Bistro
388 9th Street, Oakland, CA 94607

Free participation; $35 flat fee for dinner 

RSVP to sfsectionecs@gmail.com (more…)

Submission Deadline EXTENDED: February 12, 2020 March 15, 2020

Submit your manuscripts to the Journal of The Electrochemical Society‘s Focus Issue on Battery Safety, Reliability, and Mitigation.

About the focus issue

This Journal of The Electrochemical Society focus issue addresses the fundamental risks and issues associated with battery safety and reliability. Industry challenges with fielding safe and reliable batteries are increasing as new cell designs are introduced into advanced energy storage applications requiring higher specific energies, fast charging, and lower cost alternatives. As such, improvements in cell and battery safety design without compromising performance continues to be a major focus for researchers, manufacturers and users across all sectors of the energy storage marketplace. Better understanding of battery failure mechanisms will further enable regulatory agency approval and public acceptance of early deployment of advanced battery energy storage systems for high reliability applications. (more…)

Robb Cohen Photography & Video

John W. Weidner of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Cincinnati received the 2019 Carl Wagner Memorial Award at the 236th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting. The award recognizes mid-career achievement, excellence in research areas of interest of the Society, and significant contributions in the teaching or guidance of students or colleagues in education, industry, or government.

Weidner delivers “Mathematical Modeling of Electrochemical Systems” on Tuesday, 15 October, at 1140-1200 in Room 311.

John W. Weidner

John W. Weidner is an ECS Fellow and dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. He published 113 refereed journal articles and contributed to over 200 technical presentations in the field of electrochemical engineering. His research group created novel synthesis routines… (more…)

Is the Force With Us Yet?

In “The Lightsaber Battery,” author Richard Rogers asks if recent electric vehicle battery research makes a lightsaber battery possible. After reviewing Star Wars technology and the current state of battery technology, his conclusion is a conditional yes! However, the final stage of light saber development depends on a Kyber crystal which amplifies and channels the cosmic energy of the Force. Unfortunately, a crystal like that hasn’t been discovered in our universe yet.

Star Wars fans and electric battery developers do not despair! The need for longer-lasting electric vehicle batteries has raised cycle life goals similar to the lightsaber’s requirements—and electrochemists are rising to the challenge! That galaxy “far, far away” is coming closer and closer. (more…)

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