Lithium-Ion Battery

Light, rechargeable, energy-dense: Sony brings the first lithium-ion battery to market in 1991.

Whittingham (intercalation electrode, 1970s), Goodenough (cobalt oxide cathode, 1980) and Yoshino (prototype 1985) laid the foundations; Sony and Asahi Kasei commercialised the cell in 1991. The three received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it. The battery made smartphones, laptops and later electric cars and grid storage possible.