THE 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino for their research in improving battery technology.

The trio will share the prize for their work on “the development of lithium-ion batteries,” the Nobel committee said yesterday.

“Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized our lives and are used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles,” tweeted the committee.

“Through their work, this year’s Chemistry Laureates have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society,” it added.

The three winners will share a prize of 9 million Swedish kroner (US$910,000).

Whittingham developed the first functional lithium battery in the early 1970s, but it was too explosive to be viable, according to a statement from the committee.

Goodenough was responsible for developing far more powerful batteries.

Yoshino later eliminated pure lithium from the battery, producing the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1985, according to the statement.

This is safer than pure lithium and made the battery workable for real-world applications.

Lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous today, used in cell phones, laptops and many other devices.

Goodenough, born in 1922 in Jena, Germany, holds currently Virginia H. Cockrell Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, the United States.

Whittingham, born in 1941 in the U.K., is a Distinguished Professor at Binghamton University, the State University of New York, the United States.

Akira Yoshino, born in 1948 in Suita, Japan, is a professor at Meijo University.(SD-Agencies)