His Graphite Anode Helps Power Your Mobile Phone

The highly decorated “crazy professor in Singapore”, on always recharging his batteries.

- Justin Harper

As one of the founding fathers of rechargeable batteries, Professor Rachid Yazami should be a billionaire and a Nobel Prize winner. Incredibly, he’s neither, although he narrowly missed out on both. The Singapore-based professor dedicated a career spanning four decades to the development of lithium-ion batteries that are now ubiquitous in phones, laptops, and electric cars.

Yazami invented the graphite anode that is a vital component in today’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The French-Moroccan came up with the invention back in 1980 as a research student working in France. Since then he has been behind more than 150 patents relating to battery technology and founded six start-up companies across the US and Singapore.

Most people will know graphite as it is used in pencils. But Yazami discovered that graphite is also an excellent material for batteries as its multi-layers provide reservoirs for lithium to be stored safely.

From its humble beginnings, the rechargeable battery has now become an essential object in our daily lives, even if it’s hidden inside our phones and consoles. Indeed the industry has grown rapidly as we buy more and more devices, and is projected to reach US$41.6 billion (S$56.78 billion) by 2027.

Yazami, himself, should be a billionaire by now given his vital role in the development of lithium-ion power sources. But the patent he filed when he invented the graphite electrode as a research student was originally rejected.