Hanyang University(HYU) claims on March 7 that it made tens of billions of won scale, secondary battery-related technology transfer contract with LG Chem. In a current situation where the total amount of domestic university's technology transfer as a whole is just around 100 billion won a year, it is a revolutionary, unprecedented event that a sole university made a tens of billions of won scale technology transfer contract. Ha Seong-gyu, a Director of Industry-University Cooperation Foundation who led this technology transfer, said, "This is a historic event in the history of industry-university cooperation. I wish this could continue to the activation of domestic universities' industry-university cooperation."

LG Chem recently received about 40 patents for new technologies for high nickel (nickel content of more than 80%) from Hanyang University's Energy Storage & Conversion Materials Laboratory to strengthen its technological competitiveness in secondary battery materials. The patents are evaluated to increase the driving distance of electric cars to 20~30% when commercialized and also to decrease the explosion and combustion danger, which is a drawback of high nickel.

Cathode materials, which account for about 40% of battery production costs, are key materials that determine battery capacity and life, and are classified as four major battery materials along with anode materials, separators, and electrolytes. LG Chem aims to expand secondary battery sales from 1.7 trillion won last year to 21 trillion won in 2030 and increase its operating profit margin by double digits.

Other than this, Hanyang University and LG Chem decided to conduct co-R&D and run an industry-university cooperation scholarship program after this technology transfer. President Kim Woo-seung said, "This technology transfer is meaningful as it can share the core technology that university has with the corporation and can invest in national strategic technology by cultivating human resources together." An official from LG Chem said, "We have secured outstanding patents for positive electrode materials to secure key technologies necessary for the production of world-class battery materials. We will continue to expand industry-academic cooperation to secure next-generation battery innovation technologies and talents."