Orders placed before 3PM (Monday - Friday) will be despatched the same day!
Orders placed before 3PM (Monday - Friday) will be despatched the same day!
Orders placed before 3PM (Monday - Friday) will be despatched the same day!
Orders placed before 3PM (Monday - Friday) will be despatched the same day!
It all started back in the 1970’s during the oil crisis. By March 1974, the price of oil had risen nearly 300%, having a profound effect on social, economic and political relationships around the world. Stanley Whittingham, a young English chemist working for Exxon Mobile, had decided to explore the realms of a new battery - one that would be able to recharge quickly and, quite possibly, one day end the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
It’s fair to say the first attempt was a failure and a potentially dangerous one at that. Pairing titanium disulfide and lithium metal as electrodes, Whittingham encountered substantial difficulties and challenges. None so more than when the batteries short-circuited and caught on fire, prompting serious safety concerns. Not only that, but there were fears that the titanium disulphide could also react to form highly toxic hydrogen sulphide. Combine that with the cost of this element weighing in at an eye-watering $1000 per kilogram and it’s no wonder that Exxon Mobile soon cut the experiment!
It wasn’t until the 1980’s that John B. Goodenough picked up the baton. He had another idea; one that involved experimenting using lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode in place of titanium disulphide. This immediately reaped rewards, with the battery doubling its energy potential and forming the basis for what would become the modern lithium-ion battery cell.
Yet it was when Akiro Yoshino, of Miejo University in Nagoya, Japan, conducted experiments that the foundations for lithium-ion’s future worldwide domination were really set in stone. Swapping petroleum coke as an anode for lithium metal, Yoshino made what was a revolutionary discovery. Not only was the battery significantly safer without lithium metal but the performance was also much more stable. Shortly after, Rachid Yazimo further refined the work of his predecessors, demonstrating the reversible electrochemical intercalculation of lithium in graphite. This is now the most commonly used electrode in lithium-ion batteries.
Goodenough, Yoshino and Yazamo combined their expertise to help Sony and Asahi Kosei commercialise this revolutionary technology in 1991, opening the door for mass production and game-changing battery storage for electrical devices around the world. Over the years, the lithium-ion batteries were continuously refined and adapted, improving safety and performance amongst a host of other features.
13 years on from the start of mass production, Yet-Ming Chiang achieved a huge performance breakthrough. Lithium-ion phosphate particles smaller than 100 nanometers in diameter were used to multiply particle density by over 100 times, resulting in a larger positive electrode surface area and hugely improved capacity. This helped spark phenomenal growth within lithium-ion batteries and by 2011, they accounted for over 60% of all portable rechargeable batteries sold. This further contributed to the cost of the technology falling by a staggering 80% between 2010 and 2016.
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