"It Will Be Used to Make Electric Cars That Can Charge Faster"
Korea University of Technology and Education announced on the 3rd that Professor Park Soo-min's research team from the Department of Energy New Materials Chemical Engineering has succeeded in developing a technology that significantly improves the fast-charging stability of silicon, a next-generation battery electrode material.
Conducted jointly with Professor Nam In-ho's research team at Chung-Ang University and Professor Lee Hyun-wook's research team at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, this study was pursued to address the lack of stability in silicon-based batteries and the problem of rapid volume expansion during fast charging.
The research team focused on "oobleck" made from potato starch. Oobleck is a starch suspension created by mixing potato starch with a small amount of water; when struck strongly with a fist, the water does not splash but feels like a hard solid. In particular, due to its excellent shock absorption properties, it can even be used in bulletproof vests.
Utilizing the unique properties of this oobleck, the research team developed a novel electrode binder technology. During fast charging, the silicon electrode material inside the battery expands very rapidly, but the amylose and amylopectin, the main components of potato starch, instantly harden to suppress this expansion.
Using electron microscopy to observe the suppression of silicon volume expansion in real time, the team demonstrated excellent capacity under fast-charging conditions that fully charge the battery in 12 minutes. This capacity reaches approximately 4.6 times the theoretical limit of graphite materials currently used in electric vehicle batteries.
Professor Park Soo-min explained, "Many researchers have made efforts to improve the stability of silicon anode materials for batteries, and the technology developed this time is part of that research. This technology can be utilized to create electric vehicles that can travel farther and charge faster."
Meanwhile, the results of this study were published online on April 22 in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
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