Japan's Yoshino, 2 Others Win 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Tokyo, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday it will award the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Akira Yoshino, honorary fellow of Japanese chemical maker Asahi Kasei Corp., and two other researchers "for the development of lithium-ion batteries." The other two laureates are John B. Goodenough, 97, of University of Texas and M. Stanley Whittingham, 77, of Binghamton University, State University of New York. Goodenough became the oldest person to receive a Nobel prize. The number of Japanese Nobel laureates now totals 27, including those with U.S. citizenship, with a Japanese winning a Nobel prize for the second straight year. In 2018, Tasuku Honjo, professor at Kyoto University, was given the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Yoshino, 71, is the first Japanese laureate to get the chemistry prize since Akira Suzuki, professor emeritus at Hokkaido University, and Eiichi Negishi, professor at Purdue University, won the award with U.S. chemist Richard F. Heck in 2010. At a press conference in Tokyo, Yoshino said: "Lithium-ion batteries were born and raised with the information technology revolution, an incredibly huge wave of innovation. Their application to electric vehicles will present a solution to environmental challenges." Lithium-ion batteries are small and lightweight, but capable of producing large amounts of electric power. They are used in smartphones and other mobile IT goods that have exploded in popularity in recent years. The batteries are also used in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, and the scale of the lithium-ion battery market is seen on an upward path. According to Japanese research firm Fuji Keizai Co., the global lithium-ion battery market is seen totaling 7.4 trillion yen in 2022, up 2.3-fold from 2017. The award ceremony for Yoshino, Goodenough and Whittingham will be held in Stockholm on Dec. 10. The prize money of 9 million Swedish krona, or about 100 million yen, will be split among the three winners. "Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized our lives," the Swedish academy said on the reason for awarding the three researchers. "They have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society, and are of the greatest benefit to humankind." Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Yoshino on Wednesday night to congratulate him on the award. "Congratulations. I am proud of you as a Japanese," Abe told the researcher. "I am moved (by the news of the award)," Yoshino replied. On Twitter, Abe said: "Lithium-ion batteries have dramatically changed the lives of people around the world, including by helping the introduction of mobile phones. I'm very proud. I hope Yoshino will continue working actively (in his area)." A rechargeable lithium-ion battery is composed of positive and negative electrodes, which exchange electrons when the battery discharges or recharges electricity, and an electrolyte between the two electrodes through which ions move. Whittingham proposed the concept of a rechargeable battery using lithium in the 1970s. In 1979, Goodenough, then professor at Oxford University, found that lithium cobalt oxide, which is easy to create and can produce high voltages, is suitable for use as the positive electrode. He made the discovery when he was researching electrodes with those including Koichi Mizushima, 78, an executive fellow of Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp. <6502>, who was studying at the British university at the time. Meanwhile, Yoshino focused on polyacetylene, a plastic capable of conducting electrons, which was discovered by Hideki Shirakawa, 83, professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba and the recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1983, Yoshino developed a lithium-ion battery prototype using lithium cobalt oxide as the positive electrode and polyacetylene as the negative electrode. In 1985, he replaced polyacetylene with graphite, which can withstand heat better, as the negative electrode, completing the lithium-ion battery now in use. Yoshino, born in the city of Suita, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan in January 1948, entered Asahi Kasei in 1972 after completing a master's course at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Engineering in the same year. After working for battery-related research and development sections at Asahi Kasei, Yoshino became honorary fellow of the company in 2017. He also serves as head of the Consortium for Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Evaluation Center while working as visiting professor at Kyushu University and professor at Meijo University. He was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government in 2004. END