A domestic research team has developed a new electrode architecture that solves the greatest challenge of electric-vehicle batteries: the "risk of explosion."
A team led by Park Su-jin, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Battery Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology POSTECH, together with a team led by Moon Jang-hyeok, a professor in the School of Energy Systems Engineering at Chung-Ang University, developed a three-dimensional porous scaffold that simultaneously extends the life and enhances the safety of lithium-metal batteries. The results were published on the 13th (local time) in Advanced Materials, an international journal in materials chemistry.
Lithium-metal batteries are drawing attention as next-generation batteries that last longer on a single charge, but they have a critical weakness. With repeated charging and discharging, lithium grows into sharp needle-like structures, a phenomenon called "dendrites." If these needles pierce the inside of the battery, a short circuit can occur, causing an explosion.
The researchers found a simple yet effective solution to prevent this. They created straight, non-meandering channels inside the electrode and designed it so that lithium adheres better as it goes downward. Like parking cars in an underground garage in an orderly fashion starting from the lower floors, lithium stacks up layer by layer along a safe path.
The team realized this architecture using a "nonsolvent-induced phase separation" process that exploits the principle by which water and oil do not mix and separate. They blended carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles into a polymer to ensure high conductivity and plated silver onto a copper substrate to guide lithium to grow from the bottom. As a result, lithium stacked neatly from the bottom up, and dendrite formation was completely suppressed.
Professor Park Su-jin said, "We presented a new method that can simultaneously control ion-transport pathways inside the electrode and the way lithium stacks without complex processing," adding, "A strategy that designs both the 'roads' and 'directions' inside the electrode will be a turning point for the commercialization of lithium-metal batteries."
References
Advanced Materials (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202510919