M. Stanley Whittingham

Michael Stanley Whittingham
Born	1941 United Kingdom
Residence	United States
Alma mater	Oxford University
Known for	Lithium-ion battery
Scientific career
Fields	Chemist
Institutions	Binghamton University

M. Stanley Whittingham is a British–American chemist. He is currently a professor of chemistry and director of both the Institute for Materials Research and the Materials Science and Engineering program at Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019.

Education and career

Whittingham was educated at Stamford School in Lincolnshire from 1951-1960, before going to New College, Oxford to read Chemistry. At the University of Oxford, he took his BA (1964), MA (1967), and DPhil (1968). After completing his graduate studies, Dr. Whittingham was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University until 1972. He then worked for Exxon Research & Engineering Company from 1972 until 1984. He then spent four years working for Schlumberger prior to becoming a professor at Binghamton University.

For five years, he served as the University’s vice provost for research and outreach. He also served as Vice-Chair of the Research Foundation of the State University of New York for six years. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Binghamton University.

Research

Whittingham is a key figure in the history of the development of lithium batteries discovering the concept of intercalation electrodes. Exxon manufactured in 1970s Whittingham's rechargeable lithium battery, which was based on a titanium disulfide cathode and a lithium-aluminum anode. However, this rechargeable lithium battery could never be made practical.

“Molybdenum disulfide has almost exactly the same structure as titanium disulfide, but the difference is that molybdenum disulfide is a stable, hardy mineral—a compound resistant enough to rain and air that it occurs in nature. Titanium disulfide (TiS2) is a different animal, and the contrast between the two makes Exxon’s decision to kill Whittingham’s TiS2 battery sound reasonable." (Excerpt From: Fletcher, Seth. “Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy.” Page 51.)

“TiS2 was a poor choice,” said Jeff Dahn, a scientist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia who worked as a researcher at Moli in the 1980s. “You have to synthesize it under completely sealed conditions. This is extremely expensive. And as soon as you expose it to air, it stinks—it literally stinks—because the moisture in the air reacts with TiS2 to make hydrogen sulfide. People like Stan Whittingham and whoever will tell you, ‘Oh, you know, Exxon had everything figured out in the 1970s, and it was all about management screwups.’ Well, not true. Their electrode material was totally unworkable.” When Exxon began working in earnest on Whittingham’s battery, one company set out to manufacture raw titanium disulfide in bulk. “It was like $1,000 a kilo just for TiS2 raw material,” Dahn said. “It was ridiculous. I bought a kilo of that just so I could see what it was like. Boy oh boy, open that can, and you gotta clear the room.” (Excerpt From: Fletcher, Seth. “Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy.” Page 51.)

Batteries with metallic lithium electrodes presented safety issues, as lithium is a highly reactive element; it burns in normal atmospheric conditions because of the presence of water and oxygen. As a result, research moved to develop batteries where, instead of metallic lithium, only lithium compounds are present, being capable of accepting and releasing lithium ions.

Whittingham co-chaired DOE study of Chemical Energy Storage in 2007 and is now Director of the Northeastern Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES), a DOE Energy Frontier Research (EFRC) Center at Binghamton University. https://www.binghamton.edu/necces/

He received the Young Author Award from The Electrochemical Society in 1971, the Battery Research Award in 2004, and was elected a Fellow in 2006 for his contributions to lithium battery science and technology. In 2010, he was listed as one of the Top 40 innovators for contributions to advancing green technology by GreentechMedia. In 2012, Whittingham received the IBA Yeager Award for Lifetime Contribution to Lithium Battery Materials Research, and he was elected a Fellow of Materials Research Society in 2013. He was listed along with John B. Goodenough, for pioneering research leading to the development of the lithium-ion battery on a list of Clarivate Citation Laureates for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Thomson Reuters in 2015. In 2018, Whittingham was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, "For pioneering the application of intercalation chemistry for energy storage materials."

In 2019, Whittingham, along with John B. Goodenough and Akira Yoshino, was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “for the development of lithium-ion batteries."

Patents

• 5,514,490 Secondary lithium battery using a new layered anode material
• 4,339,424 Method of preparing W or Mo metal oxides
• 4,243,624 Method of making cathodes derived from ammonium-metal-chalcogen compounds
• 4,233,375 High energy density plural chalcogenide cathode-containing cell
• 4,201,839 Cell containing an alkali metal anode, a solid cathode, and a closoborane and/or closocarborane electrolyte
• 4,166,160 Cells having cathodes derived from ammonium-molybdenum-chalcogen compounds
• 4,144,384 Cells having cathodes with vanadium-chalcogen-containing compounds
• 4,143,213 Cells having cathodes containing chalcogenide compounds of the formula M.sub.a FeX.sub.b and species thereof exhibiting alkali metal incorporation
• 4,139,682 Cells having cathodes derived from ammonium-copper-molybdenum-chalcogen compounds
• 4,086,403 Alkali metal/niobium triselenide cell having a dioxolane-based electrolyte
• 4,084,046 Rechargeable electrochemical cell with cathode of stoichiometric titanium disulfide
• 4,049,887 Electrochemical cells with cathode-active materials of layered compounds
• 4,049,879 Intercalated transition metal phosphorus trisulfides
• 4,040,917 Preparation of intercalated chalcogenides
• 4,009,052 Chalcogenide battery
• 4,007,055 Preparation of stoichiometric titanium disulfide

Books

• J. B. Goodenough & M. S. Whittingham (1977). Solid State Chemistry of Energy Conversion and Storage. American Chemical Society Symposium Series #163. ISBN 978-0-8412-0358-7.
• G. G. Libowitz & M. S. Whittingham (1979). Materials Science in Energy Technology. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-447550-2.
• M. S. Whittingham & A. J. Jacobson (1984). Intercalation Chemistry. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-747380-2.
• D. L. Nelson, M. S. Whittingham and T. F. George (1987). Chemistry of High Temperature Superconductors. American Chemical Society Symposium Series #352. ISBN 978-0-8412-1431-6.
• M. A. Alario-Franco, M. Greenblatt, G. Rohrer and M. S. Whittingham (2003). Solid-state chemistry of inorganic materials IV. Materials Research Society. ISBN 978-1-55899-692-2.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Most-cited papers

Following is a short list of some of his most cited papers.

• Chirayil T, Zavalij PY, Whittingham MS, Thomas; Zavalij, Peter Y.; Whittingham, M. Stanley (October 1998). "Hydrothermal synthesis of vanadium oxides". Chemistry of Materials. 10 (10): 2629–2640. doi:10.1021/cm980242m.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Zavalij PY, Whittingham MS, Peter Y.; Whittingham, M. Stanley (October 1999). "Structural chemistry of vanadium oxides with open frameworks". Acta Crystallographica Section B. 55 (5): 627–663. doi:10.1107/S0108768199004000.
• Whittingham MS, M. Stanley (October 2004). "Lithium batteries and cathode materials" (PDF). Chemical Reviews. 104 (10): 4271–4301. doi:10.1021/cr020731c.
• Chen RJ, Zavalij P, Whittingham MS, Rongji; Zavalij, Peter; Whittingham, M. Stanley (June 1996). "Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of K chi MnO2 center dot gamma H2O". Chemistry of Materials. 8 (6): 1275–1280. doi:10.1021/cm950550.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Janauer GG, Dobley A, Guo JD, Zavalij P, Whittingham MS, Gerald G.; Dobley, Arthur; Guo, Jingdong; Zavalij, Peter; Whittingham, M. Stanley (August 1996). "Novel tungsten, molybdenum, and vanadium oxides containing surfactant ions". Chemistry of Materials. 8 (8): 2096–2101. doi:10.1021/cm960111q.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Yang SF, Song YN, Zavalij PY, Whittingham MS (March 2002). "Reactivity, stability and electrochemical behavior of lithium iron phosphates". Electrochemistry Communications. 4 (3): 239–244. doi:10.1016/S1388-2481(01)00298-3.
• Yang SF, Zavalij PY, Whittingham MS, S; Zavalij, Peter Y.; Stanley Whittingham, M. (September 2001). "Hydrothermal synthesis of lithium iron phosphate cathodes". Electrochemistry Communications. 3 (9): 505–508. doi:10.1016/S1388-2481(01)00200-4.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Whittingham MS, Guo JD, Chen RJ, Chirayil T, Janauer G, Zavalij P, M (January 1995). "The hydrothermal synthesis of new oxide materials". Solid State Ionics. 75: 257–268. doi:10.1016/0167-2738(94)00220-M.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Petkov V, Zavalij PY, Lutta S, Whittingham MS, Parvanov V, Shastri S, V.; Zavalij, P.; Lutta, S.; Whittingham, M.; Parvanov, V.; Shastri, S. (February 2004). "Structure beyond Bragg: Study of V2O5 nanotubes". Physical Review B. 69 (8): 085410. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.69.085410.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jian Hong, CS Wang, X Chen, Shailesh Upreti, M Stanley Whittingham, Jian Hong; Wang, CS; Chen, X; Shailesh, Upreti; Whittingham, M. Stanley (Feb 2009). "Vanadium modified LiFePO4 cathode for Li-ion batteries". Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters. 12 (2): A33–A38. doi:10.1149/1.3039795.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Hui Zhou, Shailesh Upreti, Natasha A Chernova, Geoffroy Hautier, Gerbrand Ceder, M Stanley Whittingham, Hui Zhou; Upreti, Shailesh; Chernova, Natasha A; Hautier, Geoffroy; Ceder, Gerbrand; Whittingham, M. Stanley (December 2010). "Iron and Manganese Pyrophosphates as cathodes for Lithium-Ion batteries". Chemistry of Materials. 23 (2): 293–300. doi:10.1021/cm102922q.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Fredrick Omenya, Natasha A Chernova, Shailesh Upreti, Peter Y Zavalij, Kyung-Wan Nam, Xiao-Qing Yang, M Stanley Whittingham, Fredrick Omenya; Chernova, Natasha A; Upreti, Shailesh; Zavalij, Peter Y; Nam, Kyung-Wan; Yang, Xiao-Qing; Whittingham, M. Stanley (October 2011). "Can vanadium be substituted into LiFePO4?". Chemistry of Materials. 23 (21): 4733–4740. doi:10.1021/cm2017032.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham's website at Binghamton University