锂离子电池:20世纪最重要的发明之一

Lithium-ion battery: One of the most important inventions in the 20th century

每年10月诺贝尔奖的公布全球瞩目,花落谁家牵动着亿万科技工作者的心.2019年10月9日瑞典皇家科学院宣布,今年诺贝尔化学奖由美国德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的约翰·古迪纳夫(John B.Goodenough)、美国纽约州立大学宾汉姆顿分校的斯坦利·惠廷厄姆(M.Stanley Whittingham)和日本旭化成公司的吉野彰(Akira Yoshino)共享(图1),表彰他们为锂离子电池的发展做出的重要贡献.诺贝尔奖官方网站高度评价他们创造了一个可充电的世界(“They created a rechargeable world”),对锂离子电池描述为:重量轻(lightweight)、可充电(rechargeable)、强劲(powerful).如今,锂离子电池已经应用于手机、数码相机、笔记本电脑以及电动汽车等与生活息息相关的方方面面,同时还可储存来自太阳能、风能等清洁能源,使消除或减少化石燃料的使用成为了可能.

The lithium-ion battery(LIB)has been extensively used in our daily life,which almost covers all areas of the society.It is regarded as one of the greatest inventions in the 20th century.The 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to three famous scientists who made the most important contributions to the discovery of LIBs:John B.Goodenough in the University of Texas at Austin,M.Stanley Whittingham in the State University of New York at Binghamton,and Akira Yoshino in Asahi Corporation of Japan.This article briefly introduces the indispensable roles of the three Nobel laureates in the development of LIBs,and further outlines the main challenges in the post LIBs era and the progresses of several representative next-generation electrochemical systems,including high-energy-density lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries,low-cost sodium-ion batteries and high-safety solid-state rechargeable batteries.Nowadays,the rapid development and big markets of electronic devices,new-energy vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems require high-performance rechargeable batteries.The people concern the energy density,power density,cycle life,safety and cost for the batteries.However,it is very difficult to meet all these requirements in the meantime.Compromises have to be made on these main technical performances as trade-offs are often unavoidable.For example,high energy density generally leads to potential safety risk.Safety is the most important factor especially for electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage.To address the safety issue,solid-state rechargeable batteries are desirable for the next-generation rechargeable systems.China has the biggest productions and markets for both lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles,posing great urgency to pursue for high-performance batteries.The achievements made by the three Nobel laureates and thousands of millions of dedicated scientists give us a hope that a more intelligent and advanced rechargeable world will come forth.