John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, co-winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, delivered their Nobel Lectures at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 8. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the three scientists’ seminal contributions in the development of the Lithium-ion battery. Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino are longtime members of The Electrochemical Society (ECS); Goodenough and Whittingham are ECS Fellows.

The Nobel Foundation statutes require the Laureates to give lectures on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded.

John Goodenough had his pre-taped lecture delivered by Arumugam Manthiram on the topic of Designing Lithium-ion Cathodes.

Stanley Whittingham discussed The Origins of the Lithium Battery.

Akira Yoshino presented a Brief History and Future of Lithium-ion Batteries. (more…)

John B. Goodenough © Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

As John B. Goodenough looked on, his Nobel Lecture was delivered by Arumugam Manthiram at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, on December 8, 2019. Both Goodenough and Manthiram are fellows of The Electrochemical Society (ECS).

Nobel Laureates are required to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which they receive the award. Goodenough videotaped his lecture, “Designing Lithium-ion Battery Cathodes,” before December 8, then invited Manthiram to present it in Stockholm. Manthiram added explanations and comments between Goodenough’s slides and video, concluding with a summary of Goodenough’s research and its historical significance. The three classes of materials Goodenough discovered—layered oxide, spinel oxide, and polyanion oxide—still remain the only viable cathodes and the basis for future development. Goodenough pushed the boundaries of sold-state chemistry and physics. “His trump card is using chemistry and physics to solve engineering problems,” said Manthiram on another occasion. (more…)

Join ECS San Francisco Section on December 12 for a presentation by Yijin Liu:

An Integrated Multi-modal X-ray Microscopy for Energy Material Science

Yijin Liu
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Light Source
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Menlo Park, CA

When: Thursday, December 12, 2019
Time: 1700h
Where: Sakura Bistro
388 9th Street, Oakland, CA 94607

Free participation; $35 flat fee for dinner 

RSVP to sfsectionecs@gmail.com (more…)

New deadline for submitting abstracts:
Monday, December 2, 2019
Submit today!

Review the full Call for Papers and also visit the ECS blog to check out topic close-ups for select symposia. No abstracts will be accepted after the extended date.

The 237th ECS Meeting with the 18th International Meeting on Chemical Sensors (IMCS 2020) takes place in Montréal, Canada, from May 10-14, 2020.

We hope to see you in Montréal!

On Thursday, December 19, the ECS Canada Section hosts its fall 2019 Meeting:

Current Challenges and Recent Advances in Electrochemical Technologies for a Sustainable Society

The preliminary program is available here. More information is available at the Section website.

Keynote presentations

“Autonomous Light Management in Flexible Electrochromic Thin Films Integrating High Performance Silicon Solar Microcells”
Ralph G. Nuzzo
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

“The European VOLUMETRIQ Project: Driving Forward Automotive Fuel Cells”
Deborah Jones
Université de Montpellier, France

The meeting includes additional invited speakers from international and domestic institutions, award presentations, and a poster section. (more…)

Submission Deadline EXTENDED: February 12, 2020 March 15, 2020

Submit your manuscripts to the Journal of The Electrochemical Society‘s Focus Issue on Battery Safety, Reliability, and Mitigation.

About the focus issue

This Journal of The Electrochemical Society focus issue addresses the fundamental risks and issues associated with battery safety and reliability. Industry challenges with fielding safe and reliable batteries are increasing as new cell designs are introduced into advanced energy storage applications requiring higher specific energies, fast charging, and lower cost alternatives. As such, improvements in cell and battery safety design without compromising performance continues to be a major focus for researchers, manufacturers and users across all sectors of the energy storage marketplace. Better understanding of battery failure mechanisms will further enable regulatory agency approval and public acceptance of early deployment of advanced battery energy storage systems for high reliability applications. (more…)

Deadline for submitting abstracts
December 2, 2019
Submit today!

Topic Close-up #7

Symposium B02: Carbon Nanostructures in Medicine and Biology

Symposium focus:

Nanocarbons have unique electronic, optical, and structural properties that enable new applications in biology and medicine. These may include but are not limited to assays, imaging tools, sensors, and therapeutics. The session covers areas including the development of new materials, characterization, uses/demonstration of pharmacology or effects in vitro and in vivo, plant biology applications, and clinical uses.

Nanocarbons Division SES Research Young Investigator Awardee and Keynote Speaker: Prof. Markita Landry, Assistant Professor, University of California at Berkeley

(more…)

Jan Schwämmlein and Jiancheng Yang won the ECS 2019 Young Author Awards.  The awards were presented at the 236th ECS Meeting in Atlanta, GA, on October 13-17, 2019. Schwämmlein received the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award for his paper, “Origin of Superior HOR/HER Activity of Bimetallic Pt-Ru Catalysts in Alkaline Media Identified via Ru@Pt Core-Shell Nanoparticles.” The prize, which honors corrosion expert Norman Hackerman, is given to the best paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society in the previous year. Yang received the Bruce Deal and Andy Grove Young Author Award for his paper, “2300V Reverse Breakdown Voltage Ga2O3 Schottky Rectifiers.” This award, established in honor of semiconductor industry pioneers Andy Grove and Bruce Deal, recognizes the best paper published in the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology in the previous year. The two young authors’ articles are free to read. They join a distinguished group of scientists; Stanley M. Whittingham, co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, won the ECS Young Author’s Award in 1971.

(more…)

Congratulations to Siegfried R. Waldvogel who received the 2020 ECS Organic and Biological Electrochemistry Division Manuel M. Baizer Award in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of organic electrochemistry. The award is sponsored by The Electrosynthesis Company, Inc. and Monsanto Company. A symposium and reception in his honor will be held at the 237th ECS Meeting with IMCS 2020.

Siegfried R. Waldvogel

Waldvogel received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Bochum/Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research. After postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute, he worked at the University of Münster, then as professor of organic chemistry at the University of Bonn. Waldvogel became a full professor in 2010 at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He has recently been named the director of the Gutenberg University Forschungskollegs.