Runs 1000 km on a Single Charge

Development of Electric Vehicle Battery Technology Capable of Running 1000km

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A battery technology for electric vehicles that can run 1000 km on a single charge has been developed. This technology uses oxygen from the air as the electrode material and can store more than 10 times the energy of conventional lithium-ion batteries. It is expected to provide a clue to solving the problem of battery lifespan degradation, which is one of the core components of electric vehicles.

Development of Solid-State Battery Commercialization Base Technology

Structure and performance of the developed battery.

The Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology and Samsung Electronics’ Advanced Institute of Technology announced on the 15th that they have developed a lithium-air battery by replacing the organic materials inside the battery with ceramic materials. The joint research results were published as a cover paper in the international journal Advanced Materials on the 13th.

The research team dramatically increased the battery lifespan by replacing the organic materials inside the battery with high-performance ceramic materials. The charge-discharge cycle life, which was less than 10 times previously, was greatly improved to over 100 cycles.

Masangbok Ma, a senior researcher at Samsung Electronics’ Advanced Institute of Technology and the first author, explained, "It is significant that we have developed a fundamental material technology that can accelerate the commercialization of lithium-air batteries, which are attracting attention as next-generation batteries."

New Material Applicable to Various Parts of the Battery

The research team found a material with an optimized composition through quantum mechanical modeling.

In particular, the ceramic material newly applied by the research team is a perovskite-structured ceramic material containing manganese or cobalt. It has excellent ionic conductivity and electronic conductivity simultaneously in solid form. As a result, it can be used in various components of the battery. Generally, ceramic materials only have high ionic conductivity.

Professor Donghwa Seo of UNIST, the corresponding author, expressed expectations, saying, "Because the new ceramic material can simultaneously conduct electrons and lithium ions, it can be used not only in lithium-air batteries but also in other battery fields."

Meanwhile, lithium-air batteries can store more than 10 times the energy of lithium-ion batteries currently used in various electronic devices and electric vehicles. Also, since oxygen from the air is used as the electrode material, they are much lighter than lithium-ion batteries that use metal materials. This is why they are attracting attention as next-generation lightweight electric vehicle batteries that are light and have long driving ranges. However, they have long suffered from the chronic problem of battery lifespan degradation caused by reactive oxygen generated during battery operation.

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