A research team led by Cho Jin-han, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Korea University, said on the 16th that it developed an ultrathin coating technology that improves the lifespan and safety of lithium-metal batteries using only a simple silver-ion process.
Lithium metal can store a lot of energy and has low voltage loss, drawing attention as a key material for next-generation high-energy batteries. However, if the "dendrite" phenomenon occurs, in which lithium metal grows in a tree-branch shape during charging and discharging, the risk of explosion increases, and the battery's lifespan and efficiency drop sharply.
The research team developed a technology that forms a protective layer so that lithium stacks uniformly. The method alternates stacking silver ions and trithioisocyanuric acid (TCA) on an electrode substrate. This process uses only a solution at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, requiring no separate nanoparticle synthesis or high-temperature heat treatment.
The silver ions stacked in this way naturally transform into silver nanoparticles during cell operation and help lithium deposit evenly. At the same time, the TCA component forms a stable protective layer, preventing electrode damage even after long use. As a result, it can suppress dendrite formation while maintaining charge-discharge efficiency.
A lithium-metal battery applying the developed electrode operated stably for more than 2,000 hours, and in a cell using a conventional cathode, it retained more than 96% of its capacity after over 1,300 charge-discharge cycles. It also showed high efficiency under conditions close to actual commercialization.
Cho said, "This study demonstrates that the interface of a lithium electrode can be precisely controlled using only silver ions without going through a complex synthesis process," adding, "In the future, it could evolve into a technology platform that can be extended not only to lithium but also to various metal batteries such as sodium and zinc."
The research findings were published online in the international journal in the energy storage field Advanced Materials on Sept. 13 (local time) and were selected as the cover paper.
References
Advanced Materials (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202508218