Chemistry Nobel Prize winner has connection to tribal village in Odisha

A tribal village in Odisha has an old connection to the Chemistry Nobel Prize winner John B. Goodenough. One is through a key associate of Goodenough, Mr Akshaya Padhi., and And the other through his invention of the lithium Ferro-phosphate (LFP) batteries.

Kalahandi: John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries but it is interesting to note that the pioneer invention has a close connection with a little known village in Odisha.

Maligaon village in Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi district became an experimental laboratory for the practical application of the lithium-ion batteries, even much before the concept became famous world-wide.

The utilisation of lithium phosphate came into notice for the first time in 1997 in a scientific article published in the Electro Chemical Magazine.

The three joint authors of the article were Akshaya Kumar Padhi, K.S Manjud Swamy and the scientist Mr. Goodenough. All of them were associated with the Material Science and Engineering Centre of Texas University.

With the help of these scientists, Malegaon's standard of living changed drastically as various needs of the villagers are being met from the electricity generated, through a small solar project installed here which uses lithium cell batteries.

A non-government organisation called 'Gram Vikash’ also played a key role in transforming the identity of the village.

The Odia engineer Padhi is now employed as the Cell Engineer with the renowned brand ‘Apple’.

Maligaon village consists of 46 families. The NGO Gram Vikash and the people of the village have remained together for the last 30 years. The solar Micro-grid was installed in the village in 2009 to provide power to every household.