Legendary Li-ion battery boffin John Goodenough to develop gel power packs with South Korea's SK Innovation

South Korean battery-maker SK Innovation will team up with 2019 Nobel Prize-winner John Goodenough to develop a new solid-state gel battery. Goodenough is best known as part of the team of scientists that invented the rechargable lithium-ion battery during the 70s and 80s. The team, which also included British-American chemist …

[Gordon 10]

98!!

Is he the duracell bunny in disguise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 98!!

It's nice that some countries and societies still equate age with wisdom instead of with expense.

[MachDiamond]

Re: 98!!

No more true Energizer bunny. RIP Grant Imahara.

[Anonymous Coward]

In this case nomitive determinism is proved wrong. Li-ion simply isn't Goodenough!

[DS999]

I remember hearing about this a few years ago

Glad to see it is ready for mass production, and that Goodenough is still alive and kicking. Amazing considering how many different people, companies, universities, and countries are pouring countless billions into battery research, and a guy nearing 100 years old is still able to outdo all / almost all of them! If anyone deserves a pint, he does!

[Peter2]

Re: I remember hearing about this a few years ago

Experience really does help, and when you've basically invented the field of research you probably know what doesn't work rather well from knowing all of the failed avenues that've been tried before.

He's probably also got an awful lot of people working with him, and frankly somebody respected who's been around the block enough to know what doesn't work can speed things up tremendously simply by steering the bright, energetic and enthusiastic younger workers away from expending their effort on things that have been proven to not work, meaning that immediately their efforts are more likely to achieve something.

And that's before he actually starts doing any work himself.

[Dwarf]

Goodenough

Is that what he says when he has a working design ?

But what does he say when he has a bad design ?..

Either way, I guess if it’s goodenough for him, then it’s goodenough for us.

[Elledan]

Details?

A quick googling doesn't get one a whole lot of information on this particular battery. What is interesting is that Wikipedia tells us that a number of Chinese companies have already begun to produce solid-state batteries for cars and the like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_battery

There seems to be a lot of research on the topic, with for example a few recent articles on SHGP and GPE-based batteries:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405829718310419

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsaem.0c00574

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/ab80d0

How does the battery tech in the article relate to this research?

[Greybearded old scrote]

So which is it?

When I went to college a gel was a very different thing to a solid.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: So which is it?

That is correct.

Gel. Donald Trump Jnr's Hair

Solid. Donald Trump's Hair

[Falmari]

Samsung phones

"Won't degrade. Won't catch fire. Will be a fine fit for electric vehicles"

And a fine fit for Samsung phones.

[MachDiamond]

Solid State Gel?

Ummmm. Ages ago I watched a program (Bang Goes the Theory?) where an inventor had a battery that he took a pair of scissors to while it was connected up and there were no problems. No squishy ooze coming out either.

There are lots of important parameters for a battery in something like a car or a fondleslab. Energy density is a big one along with charge/discharge rates. The biggest rule in engineering is that everything is a compromise. If you optimize for one parameter, something else suffers. Lithium Titinate batteries can be charged really fast, but they have poor power density. Not a good match for a passenger car, but it can be great for a city bus.

We'll have to wait and see if this new battery makes it out of the lab anytime soon and what it's good for.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

The Charge is not Goodenough

The world is not enough

Bond thwarts plans by a megalomanic automotive manufacturer to steal Professor Goodenough's blueprints for his new battery technology.

Reprising her role as Mary Goodnight will be Britt Eckland. A cameo by Elon Musk driving the Lotus Esprit from the Spy Who Loved Me.

[Grunchy]

Thunderf00t busted Goodenough back in 2017

Goodenough was caught making unsubstantiated claims:

https://youtu.be/8RbwOhM6PUk

Is this present news cause for another busting?