Yoshino successfully developed "Lithium ion battery" October 9th 19:14

“Lithium-ion batteries” are batteries that use a metal compound called “lithium” for the positive electrode and special carbon for the negative electrode.

The development of light batteries with high output has been underway since the Showa 50s.

Conventional batteries using "nickel" or "lead" have the disadvantage that only a low voltage of around 1.5 volts can be obtained.

On the other hand, using "lithium", a voltage higher than 3 volts was obtained, but there was a risk of heat generation and fire, and it was not possible to charge it safely.

Under these circumstances, John Goodenough, who was studying at Oxford University in the UK in 1980, and a researcher at that time, now an executive fellow of Toshiba, Koichi Mizushima, and others are the oxide of cobalt and cobalt oxide Announced that using “lithium” as a positive electrode will result in a battery that not only has high voltage but also has a long life.

Akira Yoshino, who paid attention to this achievement, was the first practical lithium-ion battery, using “Cobalt Lithium Oxide” discovered by Mizushima-san for the positive electrode in 1985, and special carbon for the negative electrode. Was successfully developed.

As a result, the practical application of the current lithium-ion battery, which is light and suppresses severe heat generation, is highly safe and can be used any number of times, has made great progress.

Five years later, in 1990, Mio Nishi succeeded in commercializing lithium-ion batteries for the first time in the world.

Unlike other rechargeable batteries, the capacity does not decrease even after repeated recharging without using up electricity, so it is often used in personal products such as mobile phones and personal computers, greatly contributing to the spread of IT equipment.

In addition, because less electricity is lost over time, it was installed in the Japanese asteroid explorer Hayabusa, which returned to Earth nine years ago, and supported a seven-year space journey.

In addition to hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, their use is expanding in energy and environmental fields, such as storage batteries that support the next-generation power grid.