POSTECH Research Team Uncovers the Secret Behind Battery Materials That Increase EV Capacity
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댓글 0건 조회 37회 작성일 2026-09-30 09:21
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New strategy proposed to improve battery performance by controlling oxygen loss in cathode materials
A team of Korean researchers has uncovered the secret behind a battery material whose usable capacity increases rather than decreases as it undergoes repeated charging and discharging.
POSTECH announced on the 28th that a research team led by Professor Ji-Hyun Hong and Dr. Guk-Hyun Lim of the Department of Battery Engineering, Professor Kyu-Young Park of the Department of Battery Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Ho-Jun Lee, an integrated M.S./Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has identified the cause of capacity degradation in manganese-based cathode materials, which are considered promising materials for next-generation electric vehicle batteries, and proposed a new strategy that turns this weakness into an advantage.
The research team examined the interior of the cathode material during hundreds of charge-discharge cycles. The material originally consists of lithium and metal atoms arranged in distinct layers, stacked neatly like a brick wall. However, as charging is repeated, oxygen that holds the structure together gradually escapes. As these structural pillars are removed one by one, lithium and metal atoms begin to mix with one another.
The researchers discovered that the amount of oxygen released acts as a trigger determining the extent to which the material becomes mixed.
They also confirmed that the amount of oxygen released can be controlled by how deeply the battery is charged—that is, by how high a voltage it reaches.
The deeper the battery was charged, the more oxygen was released. The resulting accumulation of oxygen vacancies altered the structure of the material. As the material became mixed and transformed into a new structure, pathways for lithium to move in and out increased, unexpectedly leading to a greater usable capacity.
In fact, the material with precisely controlled oxygen loss retained 98.4% of its initial performance even after more than 200 charge-discharge cycles, demonstrating remarkable durability.
While structural disordering in battery materials has traditionally been regarded as an aging phenomenon that should be avoided, the study demonstrates that when precisely controlled, it can instead serve as a design tool for significantly improving battery performance.
Professor Ji-Hyun Hong said, “By controlling oxygen loss to promote or suppress disordering, we will be able to design next-generation electric vehicle batteries tailored to specific applications.”
The study was published on September 22 in Energy & Environmental Science, an international journal in the field of energy, and was selected as an Inside Front Cover article.
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