Rachid Yazami’s biography, fact, career, awards, net worth and life story

Rachid Yazami is a Moroccan scientist and engineer. He is best known for his critical role in the development of the lithium-ion battery, as the inventor of the graphite anode (negative pole) of lithium-ion batteries. He is also known for his research on fluoride ion batteries.

Education

Yazami is a 1978 graduate of the Grenoble Institute of Technology, (INPG) where he also received a Ph. D. degree in 1985.

Battery research

Yazami’s research project included a study of graphite intercalation compounds for lithium battery applications. In 1985 he joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) as Research Associate. He was later promoted to Research Director (Professor) position in 1998.

In 1980 Yazami was the first scientist to establish the reversible intercalation of lithium into graphite in an electrochemical cell using a polymer electrolyte. Eventually, his discovery led to the lithium-graphite anode now used in commercial lithium ion batteries, an over US$80B value market. Yazami also worked on other forms of graphite materials for cathode application in lithium batteries, including graphite oxide and graphite fluoride. In 2007 he founded a start-up company in California to develop and commercialize his patented discoveries particularly on fluoride ion batteries (FIBs).

While holding a Research Director position with the CNRS in France, Yazami has served as a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology between 2000 and 2010 where he conducted cooperative research on electrode materials including nanostructured materials such as carbon nanotubes, nano-silicon and nano-germanium anodes. His research on cathode materials included thermodynamics studies of phase transitions in lithiated transition metal oxides and phosphates. He also developed a new electrochemical technique based on thermodynamics measurements (ETM), which applies to assess a battery state of charge, state of health and state of safety. Entropymetry applications include battery life extension owing to adaptive (smart) battery charging protocols and battery safety enhancement.

In 2010 Yazami was appointed a Nanyang Visiting Professor then he was promoted in 2012 the Cheng Tsang Man Chair Professor in Energy at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He currently serves as the Director of Battery Programs at the Energy Research Institute (ERIAN) and as a Co-Principal Investigator in TUM Create Center of Electromobility [1] lab. in Singapore. Yazami co-authored over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals, in proceedings of international meetings and as book chapters. He is the inventor involved in close to 150 patents according to the WIPO site.

In 2011 Yazami founded a new start-up company in Singapore, KVI,PTE LTD, which develops and commercialises novel equipments and components to investigate novel battery materials and batteries for enhanced energy, power and cycle life performances and also to increase their safety. The KVI technology is based on thermodynamics principles and methods. KVI has exclusive license on the ETM technology, including an imbedded chip for state of charge, state of health and state of safety assessment and an adaptive (ultra-fast) charging protocole. Recently, Prof. Yazami demonstrated a new battery cell based on three electrodes, an anode, a cathode and an auxiliary electrode used to regenerate the cell after aging.

From recent experimental work Yazami theorized that in a sealed rechargeable battery cell (closed system), such as a lithium ion battery, two different states of charge of the battery cannot have simultaneously the same entropy and the same enthalpy values,a statement referred to as the ‘Yazami’s Battery Theorem’.
The theorem can be expressed as:

(∆S(x₁)=∆S(x₂)) and (∆H(x₁)=∆H(x₂))⇔ x₁=x₂
, where x₁, x₂ are two states of charge,
∆S= entropy, ∆H= enthalpy
In fact, Yazami established a more universal (empirical) law which applies to primary and rechargeable batteries, that is the state of charge is a linear function of entropy and enthalpy.
SOC=α+β∆S+γ∆H, in which α, β and γ coefficients depend on the cell’ chemistry and state of health.

Awards and writing

Yazami is the co-author involved in over 250 published papers and the co-inventor of over 150 patents related to lithium primary and rechargeable batteries and on new battery chemistry based on fluoride ion. He served as the President of the International Battery Association (IBA) and as a Member of International Scientific Advisory Board of several international meetings, including the International Meetings on Lithium Batteries (IMLB). Yazami is the recipient of several research awards, including with NATO (Science for Peace Award), NASA (two Technical Innovation Awards), IBA (Research Award) and the Hawaii Battery Conference. He is the main Founder of CFX Battery, Inc. (now Contour Energy Systems, Inc.) a Caltech-CNRS start up company in Azusa, California and of KVI PTE LTD in Singapore. Yazami is the winner of 2012 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies.

In 2014, Rachid Yazami, John Goodenough, Yoshio Nishi and Akira Yoshino were awarded the Draper Prize by The National Academy of Engineering for pioneering and leading the groundwork for today’s lithium ion battery. The prize, which was then in its 25th year, includes a $500,000 award.

in 2014, Yazami was a finalist of the Global Energy Award (Russia, 2014).

Yazami received the Royal Medal (Wissam Malaki) of Intellectual Competency from HM the King of Morocco Mohamed VI, during the Throne Day on July 30, 2014.

In March 2016, Rachid Yazami received an award as a finalist of the Marius Lavet Prize of Inventing-Engineers, Paris, France

On July 14, 2016 Yazami was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Legion of honour of France.

In March 2017 he received the Honors Award of the Moroccans of the World.

In September 2014 Prof. Rachid Yazami was appointed by HM the King of Morocco a Corresponding Member of the Hassan II Academy of Sciences and Technologies of Morocco.

In November 2018, Yazami was the recipient of the Takreem Award for Science and Technological Achievement considered as the Arab Scientist of the year.

In September 2019, Yazami received the Arab Investor Award in the “Green Application” category.

In February 2020, Yazami won the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Excellence in the UAE

Nobel Prize omission

In October 2019, his co-invention of the lithium-ion battery was honored with the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. However, Yazami himself was omitted from the award, which was instead given to Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Goodenough and Whittigham for their cathodes, and Yoshino for the first working prototype, but omitted the importance of the working graphite anode invented by Yazami. Due to the Nobel Prize’s limitation of up to three recipients, Yazami believes the committee had to make “a very hard decision” between Whittingham and himself. He nevertheless congratulated the three recipients of the prize.