Join us for the Distinguished Seminar by Nobel Laureate Stanley Whittingham, Feb. 24

Join us for a distinguished seminar with Nobel laureate and Binghamton University Professor Stanley Whittingham, where he will discuss the future of lithium batteries on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. This seminar is hosted by the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, where many ASU faculty members are conducting research that has been heavily influenced by Whittingham’s work.

Lithium batteries celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2022, but they still achieve only 25% of their theoretical energy density. Graphitic carbon and layered NMC oxides, Li[NiMnCoAl]O2 dominate the anode and cathode respectively. The carbon in the anode must achieve the highest energy density applications, as it takes up half the cell volume. Can we go back to lithium metal, the holy grail anode? The present status and possible approaches will be discussed. For the cathode, most of the cobalt must be eliminated, and eventually the nickel, but there will be trade-offs between cost, reactivity, energy density and lifetime. In addition, the morphology of electrode materials has a major impact on reactivity. Whittingham will discuss these challenges. Alternatives to Li-NMC cells will also be discussed, including vanadium-based electrodes. 

Distinguished Seminar: 50 Years Old: What are the Ultimate Limits of Lithium Batteries and How do we get There?
Friday, Feb. 24, 2023
3:30 p.m.
Armstrong Hall (ARM) 101, Tempe campus [map]

M. Stanley Whittingham is a SUNY distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at Binghamton University and the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Laureate. He received his bachelor’s degree and doctor of philosophy degrees in chemistry from Oxford University, where he is an honorary Fellow of New College. He has been active in Li-batteries since 1971 when he won the Young Author Award of the Electrochemical Society for his work on beta-alumina. In 1972, he joined Exxon and discovered the role of intercalation in battery reactions, which resulted in the first commercial lithium rechargeable batteries that were built by Exxon Enterprises. In 1988 he returned to academia at Binghamton University (SUNY) to initiate a program in materials chemistry. In 2018 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the Turnbull Award from MRS. He is an Honorary Member of the Electrochemical Society; Foreign Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford; Fellow of the Royal Society, of MRS, ISE and ICDD. Presently his research addresses pushing lithium batteries to their limits and in assisting in creating an American lithium battery industry; he is the Director of the NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES) and of Battery-NY. He is on the leadership team of the two US battery consortia, NYBEST and NAATBatt.