Pukyong National University Research Team Proposes New Doping Method to Enhance Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode Material Performance

Image of the doping process for 'Cobalt-Rich (Co-rich) layered' cathode material.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Duyul] A new doping method that can enhance the performance of cathode materials for next-generation secondary batteries, lithium-ion batteries, has been proposed, attracting attention.

A research team led by Professor Oh Pil-geon and Research Professor Choi Jae-hong from the Department of Nano Convergence Engineering at Pukyong National University, in collaboration with Professor Cho Jae-pil of UNIST, recently published their study on a new doping method for stabilizing lithium-ion battery cathode materials in an international academic journal (IF=29.698).

In this study, the research team proposed a doping method to secure commercialization-level quality and stability of ‘Cobalt-rich (Co-rich) layered’ cathode materials, which have higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion battery cathode materials.

Doping is a process of adding a small amount of impurities to change the physical properties of a crystal.

The research team doped sodium (Na) into the ‘Cobalt-rich layered’ cathode material and designed a material that exhibits high specific capacity and excellent stability under high operating conditions above 4.5 volts (V).

To achieve this, the team proposed a new secondary doping method that partially substitutes iron (Fe) ions for cobalt (Co) ions to assist the doping of sodium (Na) ions, rather than simply finding optimal doping synthesis conditions through conventional optimization.

Professor Oh Pil-geon stated, “The newly developed doping method enables stable elemental substitution of new doping elements, which can enhance the performance of existing cathode materials as well as realize the performance of new materials such as nickel (Ni)-based materials and olivine materials. When combined with ongoing cathode direct recycling research, it will be possible to develop batteries with energy improved by more than 30% at less than 80% of the cost of commercial graphite anodes.”

The research was conducted with support from the Basic Research Laboratory Project selected by the National Research Foundation in 2020 and the ‘Development of Innovative Upcycling Remanufacturing Technology for Waste Cathodes for Low-Carbon Resource Circulation’ project initiated by the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation Institute in 2022.

Professor Oh Pil-geon (left), Research Professor Choi Jae-hong.

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