Items11The creator’s order
  1. 1Gaston PlantéGaston PlantéAn early lead-acid storage battery Planté introduced a practical rechargeable lead-acid cell around 1860. It made the idea of restoring a cell by passing current through it useful in hardware. The early design is the starting point for comparing what a cell could do at all with the work of making…0
  2. 2Camille Alphonse FaureCamille Alphonse FaureMaking the lead plate do more work Faure improved the lead-acid cell by coating plates with a paste containing lead oxide. The change increased capacity and helped make the design more practical. Set this beside Planté’s work to see how a different way of making an electrode can change what you…0
  3. 3Waldemar JungnerWaldemar JungnerDeveloping the nickel-cadmium cell Jungner patented work on rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries around the turn of the 20th century. He and K. L. Berg reached pilot production for applications such as standby service. This is a useful stop in the story because it shows an alternative to…0
  4. 4Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonBorn Feb 11, 1847Building a nickel-iron battery for vehicles Edison started looking for a better storage battery for electric vehicles in 1899. The resulting nickel-iron battery reached a real market, including electric trucks. Its history shows how the problem changes when a battery has to move a vehicle and come…0
  5. 5M. Stanley WhittinghamM. Stanley WhittinghamBorn Dec 22, 1941Giving lithium ions a place to go Whittingham’s rechargeable lithium cell used titanium disulfide on the positive side to take up lithium ions and release them again. Its other electrode still used lithium metal. The work showed that an electrode could host moving ions repeatedly and left a…0
  6. 6John B. GoodenoughJohn B. GoodenoughBorn Jul 25, 1922Looking for a higher-voltage positive electrode At Oxford, Goodenough’s team pursued oxides for the positive electrode. Their work on lithium cobalt oxide produced a cell voltage of about four volts, compared with a little over two in Whittingham’s earlier design. That change gave later engineers…0
  7. 7Koichi Mizushima (scientist)Koichi Mizushima (scientist)Born Jan 30, 1941Finding lithium cobalt oxide at Oxford Mizushima worked with Goodenough on a search for materials that could both take up and release lithium ions. He helped identify lithium cobalt oxide and was first author of the team’s 1980 paper. Read his account alongside Goodenough’s to see the difference…0
  8. 8Rachid YazamiRachid YazamiShowing that graphite could take up and release lithium Yazami and Philippe Touzain reported a reversible graphite electrode in 1983. The work showed that lithium could move in and out of graphite under suitable conditions. This is a separate step from finding a good positive electrode, and it…0
  9. 9Akira YoshinoAkira YoshinoBorn Jan 30, 1948Putting both electrodes together in a prototype Yoshino paired the lithium cobalt oxide positive electrode with a carbon material made from petroleum coke, in place of the lithium metal used in earlier designs. The prototype showed how to make a rechargeable lithium-ion cell without relying on a…0
  10. 10Stanford R. OvshinskyStanford R. OvshinskyDeveloping another route for rechargeable power Ovshinsky and colleagues pursued nickel-metal hydride cells, which store hydrogen in a solid material at one electrode. That chemistry found uses in hybrid vehicles and consumer electronics. It belongs alongside the lithium-ion work because different…0