New Goodenough battery shows promise

The 94-year-old inventor of the lithium ion battery, Professor John B Goodenough, has published a new paper in our journal Energy & Environmental Science, which has made headlines around the world.

The paper describes a strategy for a new breakthrough type of battery: it’s safe, low-cost, rechargeable, and with a very high energy density, meaning it won’t need charging as often. This makes the batteries ideal for electric vehicles.

The new battery cells use a solid glass electrolyte that conducts either lithium or sodium ions, rather than the liquid electrolytes used in today’s lithium ion batteries. This means we could soon see a new and more powerful generation of batteries made entirely from glass.

The story has been covered in the international and trade press, including the Detroit News, the Taipei Times, the Indian Express, Bloomberg, AutoBlog, and Italian publication Finanza & Mercati.

John Goodenough is a scientist who developed the first rechargeable lithium ion batteries in the 1970s. We recognise his work with the biennial John B Goodenough Award.

"Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted. We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries," he said in a statement from the University of Texas.