KERI named as an N-Lab for materials, components, and equipment research

The Secondary Battery Functional Materials Laboratory of the Next-Generation Battery Research Center at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI, Acting President Dr. Nam Kyun KIM), led by Dr. Seung-Wook Eom, was named as a National Laboratory (N-Lab) for materials, components, and equipment research and won the Minister of Science and ICT’s Award in recognition for its outstanding research accomplishments.

The KERI Secondary Battery Functional Materials Laboratory has world-leading research capabilities and infrastructure and strong track records in patent registration, technical transfers, and industrial support, hence crowned as an N-Lab in September 2020. It boasts second-to-none infrastructure for secondary battery research (a 172m2 dry room, a 330m2 performance, and safety evaluation facility, a 200m2 fire safety testing facility, and a 2,298m2 testing and certification center for Redox flow batteries) and 44 researchers.

The laboratory was awarded the ministerial citation in recognition for their outstanding achievements in research on all-solid-state batteries, lithium sulfur batteries, and secondary lithium batteries for electric ship use, which have contributed to tackling pain points the secondary battery industry was facing.

The laboratory’s research highlights include: a core technology for low-cost mass-production of solid electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries, a standard on the performance and safety evaluations of lithium battery modules for electric ship use, and an electrode structure production technology for high-energy-density flexible lithium sulfur batteries. What made these developments even more significant was that these technologies were transferred to industry for commercial applications. The total value of the technical transfer agreements amounted to KRW 1,840 million.

The KERI’s notable presence in the field of secondary battery research has been demonstrated by 54 papers published in relevant journals, including 15 published in high-impact journals (with 10+ Impact Factors) locally and internationally in the past three years.

Dr. Seung-Wook Eom, the Director of the Next-Generation Battery Research Center, revealed his aspiration: “this center is the cradle for the studies of lithium secondary batteries, dedicated to relevant research projects for three decades from 1993. Winning this award does not necessarily mean we’ve reached the pinnacle. We’ll further our efforts to play leading roles in the nation’s independence in battery technologies.”

Now the institute’s eyes are fixed on sharpening technical competitiveness in superlattice battery technologies for the most common application of secondary batteries, i.e., future e-mobility, and fulfilling its roles in supporting the Korean battery industry.

The KERI is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT’s National Research Council of Science and Technology. With the aim to build on self-reliant research capacity in the fields of materials, components, and equipment, the Korean government designates select research establishments as National Research Infrastructure, which is sub-categorized as National Laboratories (N-Labs) to facilitate core materials research and development, National Facilities (N-Facilities) as test-beds to validate the performance and effectiveness of the developed technologies, and National Research Teams (N-Teams) that work with industry, universities, and research institutes to provide field technical support and present directions for technical development.