Page 66 - ESJ – ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL

ENERGY STORAGE HEROES: MICHEL ARMAND

first electric and hybrid cars powered ficial retirement age, in 2011. He had ens Armand has joined, part time, the
by an all-solid state polymer battery time to make a significant contribu- CIC research centre in Vitoria, Spain
(LMP — lithium metal polymer) were tion to usher the first electrodes ma- as senior scientist. He has been visiting
available for test-drives at the 17th terials from the organic world, in par- scientist at CSIRO, Melbourne, Aus-
EV International Symposium held in ticular the polyquinones (Å electrode) tralia and is a visiting professor at the
Montréal in 2000. and the conjugated dicarboxylates (y Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute
From 2000 to 2004, Armand was electrode). of Physics in Beijing, and at Huazhong
appointed director of the new Joint Research on these materials is now University of Science and Technology
CNRS-Université de Montréal Inter- extremely active worldwide, simply in Wuhan. From 2013 to 2014 he was
national Laboratory on Electroactive considering the non-depletability of thinker in residence at Deakin Univer-
Materials (LIME), which brought to- carbon-based materials and their easy sity, Melbourne and is now honorary
gether scientists from both sides of the processing. professor at Deakin.
Atlantic to work faster towards the In recent developments Armand was The last word goes to Armand.
finish line of the LMP project. involved in the co-discovery of metal “The progress made in the last 20
Earlier on, in Austin Texas, John fluorosulfates LiFeSO F as possible years in terms of new concepts and
4
Goodenough at the University of Tex- improvements over phosphate posi- materials for energy management and
as had proposed a new electrode ma- tive electrodes. In terms of salts as sol- storage surpasses that of the last two
terial, LiFePO , which did not use rare utes for the electrolyte, he introduced centuries since Volta’s invention of the
4
cobalt, but the reported performances a new family of anions based on the pile,” he says.
in terms of capacity and power were 5-membered cycles with a stabilized “These promises come at a time
quite poor. negative charge according to Hückel’s when humanity has an ever-growing
Upon reception of the book of ab- rule. These very stable salts, developed need for a sustainable environment.
stracts from the electrochemical soci- with Warsaw University of Technol- The progressive replacement of rare
ety describing this material, Armand, ogy and the chemical company Arke- elements (Ni, Cd, Co) by abundant,
who had been testing LiMnPO a few ma, are on the brink of being used innocuous Fe derivatives or organic
4
years before, realised the promises of commercially in batteries. molecules as electrode materials is a
such materials. Since retirement as Emeritus in Ami- good omen for this technology.”
“I literally took the first flight out
to Texas to meet John Goodenough
to offer him a collaboration within a MICHEL ARMAND
Hydro-Québec-University of Texas-
Université de Montréal triangle,” says Acknowledgements for Armand’s
Armand. distinctions read like a roll of honour:
“Curiously, Goodenough was reluc- Bronze then silver medals from
tant as he thought that the very low CNRS (1978, 1989); Royal Society,
electronic conductivity of this mate- Faraday Division, Medal Award
rial would be a crippling handicap, (1985); Médaille Blondel, Société
and he had not even bothered to take des Electriciens et Electroniciens, –
a patent before the ECS abstract dis- Paris (1987).
closure,” he says. Preis fur Umweltteknologie
“A few months later, I was able to Saarland Länder (1988); Battery
show that superb electrochemical per- Division Award, The Electrochemical
formances could be obtained when a Society USA (1988); Prix Yvan
thin (a few nm) layer of carbon was Puech de l’Académie des Sciences
deposited on the surface of LiFePO , (1989); Prix Bardy/Comité
4
and this carbon could be obtained by des Arts Chimiques, Société
simply charring organic materials (in- d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie
cluding simple sugar) mixed with the Nationale (1989); Pergamon
LiFePO powder.” Medal, International Society for
4
“However, tensions grew within the Michel Armand has written or co- Electrochemistry (1995); Volta Award
LIME Laboratory over the potential authored 370 publications, including ECS European Section (2000);
monetary value created by the value of 304 in international journals, first recipient; Doctor Honoris
LiFePO @C carbon-coating patent,” books and book chapters; 225 Causa from Uppsala University
4
says Armand. The company Phostech presentations at conferences, of (2006); Galileo Award for polymer
was created based on this. However, a which 185 were invited, 167 patents electrolytes research (2010); Prix
long period of litigation was to ensue delivered or pending. He has been Aymé Poirson de l’Académie des
over the exclusivity of the patent due PhD advisor for 23 students. Sciences (2012); Catalan-Sabatier
to issues of premature disclosure, and He has acted on the editorial Award from La Real Sociedad
tens of millions of dollars of royal- board of several journals (Solid- Española de Quimica –Madrid (2012);
ties were lost. The end result was that State Ionics, Journal of Applied OREBA conference on Olivines for
China has become by far the largest Electrochemistry, Synthetic Metals, rechargeable batteries in honour of
producer of LiFePO but without roy- J. Power Sources, JNMES) and the Michel Armand Montréal June 25-
4
alties. conference advisory committees 28, (2014); IBA medal of excellence
Armand came back to France and and organizations of 35 international and Conference in honour of Michel
joined Jean-Marie Tarascon’s team in conferences. Armand, – Nantes (2016).
Amiens, where he worked until his of-

64 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2019 www.energystoragejournal.com