An Electrifying Choice for the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize: Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino

As editors of a materials chemistry journal, we are thrilled at the awarding of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, for their contributions that have led to the modern lithium ion battery (Figure 1). As the Nobel Prize Committee states succinctly, “They created a rechargeable world.”(1) The commercial and societal rewards of experimental research typically require decades to reach fruition, and lithium ion batteries were no different, with crucial leads dating back to the 1960s, and even earlier.(2) Materials chemistry journals only emerged 30 years ago with the advent of Chemistry of Materials, the Journal of Materials Chemistry, and Advanced Materials in 1989. Much of the earlier work in battery materials appeared beforehand in electrochemistry, physics, and solid state journals. The key fundamental discovery underpinning the lithium ion battery was the understanding and application of ion intercalation, in this case,(3) lithium ions inserted between the layers in graphite, metal sulfides, and, eventually, oxides that were commercialized. This Nobel Prize was evenly split three ways because, as the Nobel committee correctly observed, the contributions of all three inventors were essential to the success of the commercialization of the lithium ion battery.