New Lithium Metal Battery Technology Overcomes Lifespan Issues
Lithium metal battery technology developed by the KAIST-LG Energy Solution research team. (Photo courtesy of KAIST)
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and LG Energy Solution have jointly unveiled a new battery technology that enables electric vehicles to travel longer distances than current models with just a brief charging time.
KAIST announced on Sept. 4 that the research team from the Frontier Research Laboratory (FRL), a joint project between Prof. Kim Hee-tak of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and LG Energy Solution, has developed a groundbreaking aggregation-inhibiting new liquid electrolyte technology that can dramatically improve the performance of lithium metal batteries. The research findings were published in the international journal Nature Energy on Sept. 3.
The newly developed lithium metal battery can travel 800km on a single charge, surpassing the maximum 600km range of lithium-ion batteries widely used in current electric vehicles. The charging time is only 12 minutes, and it has achieved a lifespan capable of accumulating 300,000km of driving.
The research team overcame the existing stability issues of lithium metal batteries to secure this performance. Lithium metal batteries replace the graphite anode, a key material in lithium-ion batteries, with a substance called lithium metal. While lithium metal is expected to improve performance compared to existing batteries, the ‘dendrite’ phenomenon, where tree-branch-shaped lithium crystals form on the anode surface during charging, reducing lifespan and stability, has been hindering commercialization. Dendrites are particularly severe during rapid charging.
The research team identified that the fundamental cause of dendrite formation is due to uneven interfacial aggregation reactions on the lithium metal surface, and solved this problem through a new aggregation-inhibiting liquid electrolyte. The electrolyte features an anion structure with weak binding force to lithium ions, effectively suppressing dendrite growth even during rapid charging.
Kim Je-young, chief technology officer (CTO) of LG Energy Solution, said, “The collaboration over the past four years through FRL has been producing meaningful results,” adding, “We will further strengthen industry-academic cooperation to solve technical challenges and achieve the best results in the field of next-generation batteries.” Prof. Kim stated, “Understanding the interfacial structure has become a crucial foundation for overcoming the technical challenges of lithium metal batteries, and we have overcome the biggest hurdle for introducing lithium metal batteries to electric vehicles.”