On January 30, Hanyang University announced that Professor Yeom Bong-jun developed a super-porous nanocomposite separation membrane for high-energy-density lithium metal batteries. The technology lets stable movement even under the condition that uses a high-capacity cathode and a small amount of lithium and it can be used as a core technology of the next-generation high energy density battery commercialization.

Lithium metal battery is spotlighted as a next-generation high energy density secondary battery thanks to lithium's high capacity. However, a technological solution is sought to deal with side reactions between lithium protrusions and electrolytes while charging and discharging the battery and to reach a high energy density.

Professor Yeom's research team developed a super-porous polyvinyl alcohol/aramid polymer nanocomposite separation membrane to solve these problems. The membrane is self-assembly through phase separation and a stomata formation process due to the swelling of polyvinyl alcohol and it shows a high porosity of more than 95%.

The developed membrane's performance that controls lithium protrusions and electrolytes effectively through fast and even ion transfer is confirmed by its outstanding electrolyte, ion-friendliness, and super-porousness. By applying this to a lithium metal battery that has a high capacity of cathode and a small amount of lithium, they saw stable charging and discharging movement over 170 times and it showed an evolutionary performance that maintains 80% of its initial capacity.

Professor Yeom said, "The super-porous nanocomposite separation membrane is expected to be a core technology that can overtake the next-generation high-energy-density battery market. We are under research for commercialization possibility check through in-person production technology research."

This research, sponsored by a mid-sized researcher in a new research support program and the commercialization technology development project using tech bridge by the National Research Foundation is going to be published in the February edition of the 「Energy Storage Materials」, an international journal in the materials and energy field.

Lee Dong-geun, a student in a Ph.D. course at Hanyang University participated in the paper 「Coordinated self-assembly of ultraporous 3D aramid nanofibrous separators with a poly(vinyl alcohol) sheath for lithium-metal batteries」 as the first author and Professor Yeom Bong-jun participated as a corresponding author.