Senior researcher Park Jeong-jin and a team at the Energy Storage Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said on the 27th that they developed a new cathode material technology that suppresses structural instability in high-nickel cathodes, securing both longer electric vehicle range and battery life. The findings were published in the international journal Nature Energy in November last year.
As electric vehicle adoption accelerates, competition for high-energy batteries that go farther on a single charge is intensifying. Cathode materials with high nickel content are cited as the key to boosting energy density, but high-nickel cathodes with a nickel ratio exceeding 90% have faced a problem in which a "collapse phenomenon" occurs as charging and discharging repeat, with internal structures swelling or shrinking rapidly and falling apart, causing the lifespan to shorten quickly. In this process, accumulated microcracks further accelerated performance degradation.
The solution the team presented corrects the cause of structural failure at the initial activation stage. During the first operation of the battery, the atomic arrangement is reconfigured electrochemically to form pillar structures that support the spaces between internal layers. These pillars act as braces against expansion and contraction during repeated charge and discharge, suppressing layered-structure collapse and greatly reducing crack formation.
A battery using this technology retained more than 92% of its initial performance even after 100 charge-discharge cycles, showing improved stability over existing high-nickel materials. The team emphasized that structural stability can be secured without adding separate additives or complicating the process, offering advantages in manufacturing process simplification and expense reduction.
The researchers added that this technology is not limited to a specific composition and can be applied broadly to high-nickel cathode materials, making it usable across various electric vehicle battery systems. They also said that if expanded to fields that require long-life, high-reliability batteries, such as energy storage systems (ESS), it is expected to strengthen technological competitiveness in the next-generation battery market.
Senior researcher Park Jeong-jin said, "It is significant that we identified the root cause of battery damage at the atomic level and addressed it through an electrochemical method," adding, "We are reviewing commercialization potential for EV battery applications and will move toward real-world use through follow-up research."
References
Nature Energy (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01910-w