Batteries play a critical role in everyday life, from powering smartphones to enabling electric vehicles. Despite their importance, today's batteries still come with major drawbacks, including high costs and the risk of fires or explosions. All-solid-state batteries have long been viewed as a safer alternative, but progress has been slowed by the challenge of balancing safety, performance, and affordability. Now, a research team in South Korea has shown that battery performance can be significantly improved through smart structural design alone, without relying on expensive metals.
On January 7th, KAIST announced a breakthrough by a research team led by Professor Dong-Hwa Seo from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The project brought together researchers led by Professor Sung-Kyun Jung (Seoul National University), Professor Youn-Suk Jung (Yonsei University), and Professor Kyung-Wan Nam (Dongguk University). Together, they developed a new design approach for key all-solid-state battery materials that uses inexpensive raw ingredients while maintaining strong performance and a lower risk of fire or explosion.
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