Extending the Lifespan of 'Lithium Metal Batteries'... Development of Anode Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A technology to overcome the capacity limitations of graphite, the anode material of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and information storage devices, has been developed by a domestic research team. They proposed a method to enhance the durability of lithium metal, which has an energy density more than 10 times higher, enabling its use as an anode material instead of graphite. This is expected to be a technology that brings the commercialization of 'lithium metal batteries' one step closer.

The National Research Foundation of Korea announced on the 14th that a joint research team including Professor Jongwon Lee of Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Professor Minsik Park of Kyung Hee University, and Professor Jungho Kim of the University of Wollongong in Australia developed a 3D lithium storage structure design technology to improve the lifespan of next-generation lithium metal batteries. The research results were published online in the international energy journal 'ACS Energy Letters.'

The research team solved the problem of performance degradation of electrodes caused by lithium dendrite formation when using lithium metal as an anode material. Despite lithium metal's high energy storage capacity of 3860mAh/g, severe volume changes occur due to the formation of tree-branch-shaped lithium dendrites around the electrode during charging and discharging processes.

The team addressed this issue by utilizing the surface activity property, where lithium ions are reduced to metal from the electrode surface inward. They enhanced the surface activity further to enable uniform lithium metal storage from the bottom of the electrode.

The research team experimentally verified that no lithium dendrite formation or volume changes occurred even during repeated charge-discharge cycles, maintaining stable performance over a long period.

The team stated, "We expect this technology to help realize high-efficiency lithium metal batteries with higher energy density and excellent lifespan characteristics compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.