Press Release
Johns Hopkins APL Researchers Win 2019 R&D 100 Award for Breakthrough Lithium-Ion Battery Technology
APL’s breakthrough lithium-ion battery technology has been recognized with a 2019 R&D 100 Award, celebrating industry-changing products and technologies.
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL
A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, has won a 2019 R&D 100 Award for their breakthrough lithium-ion battery technology.
The list of 2019 R&D 100 Award winners also includes teams from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the Argonne, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Sandia national laboratories.
“We are honored by this recognition of the groundbreaking innovations behind the Laboratory’s lithium-ion battery technology,” said APL Director Ralph Semmel. “This research has the potential to change the future of battery safety and functionality, and is another example of the high-impact breakthroughs made by APL’s incredibly talented staff members.”
The flexible Li-ion battery can operate under extreme conditions — including cutting, submersion and simulated ballistic impact — and is incombustible. The research was recently published in the journal Chemical Communications, of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
“These 100 winning products and technologies are the disruptors that will change industries and make the world a better place in the coming years,” said Paul Heney, vice president and editorial director for R&D World magazine.
The team of researchers behind the winning technology is led by Konstantinos Gerasopoulos of APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Department (REDD), and the team also includes Jeff Maranchi, Adam Freeman, Spencer Langevin, Jarod Gagnon, Bing Tan, Christopher Hoffman Jr. and Matthew Logan.
“We are encouraged and excited by our progress in making an ‘unbreakable,’ safe, flexible Li-ion battery,” said Jeff Maranchi, the program area manager for materials science at APL. “Our brilliant team of scientists and engineers displayed great acumen when they realized that the polymer electrolyte’s chemical makeup could actually enable safe batteries with much higher voltage and energy than ever before. That was the key insight that is going to propel this innovation all the way to the forefront of Li-ion battery technology.”
The research team’s work on the flexible Li-ion battery continues at APL with a goal of transitioning the groundbreaking technology into prototyping within the year.
The 2019 R&D 100 Awards will be given out at the annual R&D 100 Conference on December 5, in San Francisco, California.