Lithium-Ion Batteries: Science and Technologies (2009)

My Way to Lithium-Ion Batteries Yoshio Nishi I have been engaged in research and development (R&D) on novel materials for electronic appliances for 40 years since I joined Sony Corporation in 1966. I started my scientific career in Sony as a researcher of zinc-air batteries. After 8 years in R&D on electrochemistry, my research field was shifted against my will to el- troacoustic materials, specifically diaphragm materials for electroacoustic tra- ducers including loudspeakers, headphones, and microphones. My R&D work also extended to cabinet materials for speaker systems. This about-face was uncomfo- able for me at first, but it forced me to devote myself to the investigation of various classes of materials unfamiliar to me, covering pulp and paper, metals (i. e., Ti, Al, Be), ceramics (B4C, TiN, BN, SiC), carbonaceous materials (carbon fibers, intr- sic carbon, artificial diamond), reinforcing fibers for FRP (carbon fibers, aromatic polyamide fibers, glass fibers, SiC fibers, superdrawn polyethylene fibers), organic polymers (polyamides, polyethylene, polypropylene, polymethylpentene, poly- ides, polysulfones, polyetherimides, polyethersulfones, PET), boards (plywood, particle board), resin composites (bulk molding compounds, resin concretes, arti- cial marble), and so on. I also was engaged in development of piezoelectric lo- speakers employing poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVdF). The remarkably successful output from my R&D activities in those days were organic polymer whiskers and bacterial cellulose. The former was the first organic whisker in the world disc- ered by M. Iguchi,1 which is composed of polyoxymethylene (POM).