M. Stanley Whittingham, FRS
2019 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Binghamton University

Lithium-ion batteries have transformed modern society, powering everything from mobile electronics and electric vehicles to emerging energy storage infrastructure. Yet despite fifty years of development, today's lithium batteries still achieve only a fraction of their theoretical performance potential, leaving significant scientific, engineering, and manufacturing challenges unresolved. Join 2019 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry M. Stanley Whittingham, whose pioneering work laid the foundation for modern lithium-ion battery technology, for a discussion of the next generation of energy storage systems and the challenges facing the United States as it seeks to build a globally competitive battery industry. Professor Whittingham will examine the scientific limits of current lithium-ion technologies, emerging alternatives to today's dominant battery chemistries, and the critical research questions that must be addressed to achieve higher performance, longer lifetimes, and more sustainable energy storage systems. He will also provide an informed perspective on which battery technologies are technically viable, which remain highly speculative, and how researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers should think about the future of energy storage.

The Nobel Committee citation read: “They have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society, and are of the greatest benefit to humankind.” Now the world needs to take action. Although lithium batteries celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2022, they still achieve only 25% of their theoretical energy density. Even at that level, they now dominate portable energy storage. The dominant anode and cathode today are graphitic carbon and the layered NMC oxides, LI[NiMnCoAl]O2. Both need improving. We must push the chemistry to its limits. Ten-year lifetimes demand 99.95% reaction selectivity.

Alternatives to Li-NMC cells will also be discussed, including the phosphates, with also a discussion of what is very technically and/or politically challenging and maybe not viable in an attempt to correct some of the exponential hype in the battery energy storage arena. A key challenge in the Western world is to build a sustainable supply chain and manufacturing capability that leapfrogs the present 30 year old technology. We need to stop building new “old gigafactories” in North America.

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