Breakthrough for the 'High-Voltage Era' in Power Equipment... KERI Surpasses Limits of Eco-Friendly Insulating Materials

Dr. Yoo Seunggeon’s Team Enhances Polypropylene Performance with Melt-Based One-Step Process... First Top-Tier Journal Publication in Korea

As the trend toward higher voltages in power equipment accelerates, a Korean research team has developed a technology that surpasses the performance limits of eco-friendly insulating materials. Expectations for commercialization are growing, as the process can be applied directly in industrial settings.

The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) announced on the 23rd that the research team led by Dr. Yoo Seunggeon of the KERI Insulating Materials Research Center has secured a technology that dramatically improves the high-voltage stability of polypropylene, an eco-friendly insulating material for power equipment.

Dr. Yu Seunggeon's team at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute succeeded in surpassing the performance limits of the conventional insulating material polypropylene by utilizing a 'melting' process. Provided by the research team.

For power equipment, insulation performance is crucial, as it must efficiently transmit current while preventing accidents. In particular, as large-capacity and long-distance power transmission has recently expanded, demand is rapidly increasing for insulating materials that can operate stably even in high-voltage environments.

The research team developed a technology that chemically bonds (grafts) a voltage stabilizer to polypropylene by applying a dry process that does not use toxic organic solvents. The key is the widely used industrial "melt" method. By melting polypropylene with heat and inducing the voltage stabilizer to be uniformly dispersed and bonded throughout the material, the team suppressed electric field concentration in high-voltage environments and achieved stable insulating properties.

Dr. Yoo Seunggeon said, "Previously, commercialization was difficult because of organic-solvent-based processes, and the reaction was limited to the surface of the material," adding, "Through a melt-based one-step process that is familiar to industry, we have developed a high-performance, eco-friendly insulating material that companies can use immediately."

This research was enhanced through internal and external collaboration. Evaluation of the high-voltage performance of the insulating material was carried out by the team of Dr. Kwon Iksu at the KERI Power Cable Research Center and the team of Professor Masahiro Kozako at Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, while simulation-based analysis of the physical phenomena was performed by Dr. Kim Minhee of the KERI Eco-Friendly Power Equipment Research Center.

From left: Dr. Yoo Seunggeon, Dr. Kim Minhee and Dr. Kwon Iksu of KERI. They developed a process technology that surpasses the performance limits of polypropylene, an insulating material for power equipment. Provided by KERI.

The research team expects that this material will improve the performance and reliability of ultra-high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power cables, as well as applications in electric vehicles, energy storage systems (ESS), and data centers, where power consumption is high. Going forward, they plan to work with companies to actively promote technology transfer and industrial application. In addition, they intend to use artificial intelligence (AI) to discover additional candidate voltage stabilizer materials and further advance the insulating performance.

The results of this study were published in Advanced Functional Materials, an international journal in the field of materials engineering. This is regarded as the first case in Korea in which research on high-voltage insulating materials has been published in such a top-tier journal.

Meanwhile, KERI is a government-funded research institute under the National Research Council of Science & Technology, and this research was carried out with support from KERI’s internal basic project and the Ministry of Science and ICT’s "Materials Global Young Connect" program.