From Daniell Cell to Lithium-Ion: Eight Pioneers of the Electric Cell

The Daniell cell separated two different electrolytes with a porous barrier, which overcame the polarization problem and gave a steadier, more reliable current than the voltaic cell it replaced.

In 1839 Grove built the first fuel cell, his gas voltaic battery, showing that hydrogen and oxygen could be combined electrochemically to make current with water as the only byproduct.

In 1859 Plante invented the lead-acid battery, the first practical rechargeable battery, using lead plates in sulfuric acid so that current passed back through the cell could recharge it.

In 1881 Faure coated lead grid plates with a paste of lead oxide, replacing the slow forming process of Plante's design and making the lead-acid battery practical to manufacture in quantity.

In 1893 Weston developed the saturated cadmium cell, a standard so stable that it served as the international standard for electromotive force from 1911 until 1990, and he waived his patent rights to let it be used freely.

In the 1970s at Exxon Whittingham built the first rechargeable lithium battery with a titanium disulfide cathode that could take up lithium ions reversibly, though its lithium metal anode was too prone to short circuits for wide use.

Goodenough identified the lithium cobalt oxide cathode that roughly doubled the energy density of the lithium-ion battery and made it commercially practical.

In 1985 Yoshino paired a carbon-based anode with Goodenough's cathode to create a lithium-ion battery safe and stable enough for mass production, commercialized by Sony in 1991; the three men shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.