Graduate Student Kim Seung-joo of Dong-Eui University Selected for Women Graduate Students Engineering Research Team Support Project

Development of Functional Micro Fire Extinguishing Capsules for Early Fire Suppression

Seungjoo Kim, a master's student in the Department of Applied Chemistry and Food Engineering at Dong-Eui University Graduate School (advisor Professor Kyucheol Lee), was recently selected for the ‘2024 Women Graduate Students Engineering Research Team Support Project (Advanced Course)’ supported by the Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET), receiving up to 8 million KRW in funding.

Graduate student Kim Seung-joo of Dong-Eui University (front row, right), selected for the Engineering Research Team Support Project for Female Graduate Students.

The Women Graduate Students Engineering Research Team Support Project aims to nurture outstanding female scientists and engineers by supporting autonomous research projects conducted by female graduate and undergraduate students in science and engineering fields.

The Applied Chemistry team at Dong-Eui University consists of research leader graduate student Seungjoo Kim and team members Daehong Kim, Hyewon Jeon, and Mireu Kim, all third-year students in the Department of Applied Chemistry. They plan to conduct a research project titled ‘Development of Fire Extinguishing Agents and Self-Extinguishing Functional Microcapsules for Early Fire Suppression’ until October.

The research project of the Applied Chemistry team intends to safely store fire extinguishing agents within polymer shells of microcapsules under normal conditions and induce cracks in the capsule shells through temperature and impact during a fire, thereby enabling the self-extinguishing function.

Seungjoo Kim, the research leader, stated, “Our goal is to achieve complete fire suppression within one minute in a laboratory-scale fire extinguishing test environment using micro fire-extinguishing capsules,” adding, “We will ensure early suppression effectiveness so that it can be practically utilized in real-world situations.”

Professor Kyucheol Lee, advisor of the Department of Applied Chemistry, said, “This could be the first means to protect users from thermal runaway phenomena in lithium-ion batteries. We expect the participating students to enhance their self-directed research capabilities and leadership through this project and grow into outstanding science and technology talents.”