Nobel laureate Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham and Pure Lithium File Joint Patent On Lithium Metal Battery

CHARLESTOWN, MA / ACCESSWIRE / December 14, 2023 / Pure Lithium, a disruptive Boston-based lithium metal battery technology company, is pleased to announce the joint filing of a patent on the lithium metal battery with Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham. The patent's inventors include Pure Lithium's CEO Emilie Bodoin, CSO Professor Donald R. Sadoway, and Research Engineer Dr. Krystal Lee, and is based on material improvements to the lithium metal battery utilizing Pure Lithium's electrodeposited anode.

"We are thrilled to announce this joint patent filing with Dr. Whittingham, who first invented the lithium metal battery in 1977. His work inspired our battery development. He is a prolific scientist whose groundbreaking research paved the way for today's lithium-ion batteries. We are honored to have paired Dr. Whittingham's cathode composed of vanadium oxide with Pure Lithium's lithium metal anode technology to produce an economically viable, sustainable, next-generation lithium metal battery that can be manufactured via supply chains confined to North America," said Emilie Bodoin, Founder and CEO of Pure Lithium.

"Our pure lithium metal anode enables us to eliminate the graphite serving as lithium host for the anode in conventional lithium-ion batteries. The attendant weight loss endows the battery with much higher energy density and longer life. Our Brine to Battery™ technology unlocks unconventional sources of lithium that can be brought online quickly. In stark contrast to the lithiated transition-metal oxides serving as cathode active components in lithium-ion batteries, vanadium oxide cathode contains no lithium to maintain the proper crystal structure. This allows the cathode to fully utilize the lithium metal of the anode. Collaboration with Dr. Whittingham has accelerated our work aimed at radically transforming the supply chain in a battery market valued at around US$50 billion," said Prof. Donald R. Sadoway, CSO and Co-founder of Pure Lithium.

Dr. Whittingham invented the lithium metal battery and is widely recognized as one of the fathers of lithium-ion battery technology. His role in the development of lithium-ion batteries garnered him the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shares with scientists John B. Goodenough and Akira Yoshino. His early insights into the potential for ion insertion in layered compounds, followed by the initial development and commercialization of lithium-ion batteries using lithium-aluminum alloy anodes and titanium disulfide cathode, laid the groundwork for the revolution in electrochemical energy storage technology, which continues today.

Dr. Whittingham is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, where he also serves as Director of both the Institute for Materials Research and the Materials Science and Engineering program. He received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Oxford University, where he was an honorary fellow of New College. He has been active in lithium batteries since 1971, when he won the Electrochemical Society's Young Author Award 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-ion rechargeable batteries that were built by Exxon Enterprises.

About Pure Lithium

Pure Lithium is a disruptive Boston-based company led by world-renowned battery and metallurgical expert, MIT Professor Donald R. Sadoway, as full-time CSO, and inventor and lithium expert, CEO Emilie Bodoin. The company's novel Brine to Battery™ extraction technology unlocks unconventional sources of lithium to expeditiously create a battery-ready electrode in one day. The resulting battery is free of cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite. For more information, visit www.purelithium.io.

Contact:

Amalie Mundt, Director of Corporate Development
amundt@purelithium.io

SOURCE: Pure Lithium