LG Energy Solution, Yonsei University advance electrode tech for EV batteries
Electrodes, a key component affecting battery performance, are typically produced using a wet process that involves solvents to create a slurry, which is then coated onto a metal foil and dried. This method is energy- and time-intensive, requires substantial facility investments, and limits the energy density of the electrodes.
In contrast, the "game-changing" dry electrode process mixes active materials, conductive agents, and binders without solvents, forming electrodes in solid powder form. This innovation reduces manufacturing costs and maximizes production efficiency.
However, several technological challenges remain in commercializing dry electrodes, such as achieving uniform distribution of electrode plates, improving thick electrode technology and securing high yield rates for mass production.
The research team has analyzed these challenges, theoretically clarifying their underlying causes and proposing key solutions for large-scale application and commercialization. Specifically, they examined the integration of scalable roll-to-roll electrode manufacturing techniques, such as slurry casting and dry coating. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Energy on Feb. 26.
"Dry electrodes represent a 'super-gap technology' that will help us maintain a competitive edge in the global market, particularly against fast-growing Chinese battery companies," said Kim Je-young, chief technology officer of LG Energy Solution.
Meanwhile, LG Energy Solution is accelerating the development of the dry-coating process, with the goal of achieving mass production by 2028. According to Kim, the method is expected to reduce manufacturing costs by up to 30%. The company is also developing "bipolar energy" technology, an advanced version of conventional dry electrode techniques, to further enhance energy density and lower production costs.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
2 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Why some Koreans considered iPhone ‘half-baked' until it could replace their wallet and record calls
For more than a decade, a certain group of South Korean iPhone users passed around the same dry joke online: features like Apple Pay, call recording and transit card support would "only come to iPhone after unification with North Korea." The comparison wasn't literal. It was a way of saying these features felt so delayed that they belonged to the realm of the near impossible. But as of now, that punchline has expired. On July 22, Apple and T-money officially launched support for Korea's nationwide transit card system on iPhones and Apple Watches. It was the last major item on a long list of missing functions that had, for many, made the iPhone feel "half-baked." While there has been no official survey or data on how many iPhone users in Korea viewed the device as incomplete, the frustration was very real, and very specific for some. For years, Galaxy users could pay at almost any store using Samsung Pay's MST technology, swipe into buses and subways with built-in postpaid transit cards, and record phone calls natively. iPhone users, by contrast, had to make tradeoffs. 'I stayed with Galaxy because I had to,' said Kim Min-seok, a 38-year-old sales team manager at a mid-sized electronics firm in Seoul. 'Call recording isn't optional in my job. We handle client contracts over the phone all the time. If I missed something and had no record, I was the one to blame.' He recently switched to an iPhone 15 after his company approved the use of SK Telecom's 'A.' app, which enables call recording through a separate VoIP system. But the transition, he said, still feels like a compromise. 'It works, but it's not the same. On Galaxy, it's just there. You press a button and it's done.' This isn't a niche concern. In Korean business culture, verbal instructions and agreements often carry weight. As a result, call recording is not seen as invasive, but practical. Until recently, iPhones had no way to support it, due to Apple's global privacy policies and refusal to allow third-party access to its native call interface. 'I had friends who loved Apple, but they couldn't use it because of that one feature,' Kim said. 'It wasn't about price or loyalty. It was about function.' Other features were equally consequential. Samsung Pay, launched in 2015, quickly became the de facto standard for mobile payments in Korea. It supported virtually all credit and debit cards and worked on nearly every terminal, including those without NFC support. Apple Pay, which depends entirely on NFC, arrived in Korea only in March 2023 through Hyundai Card, nine years after its global debut. Even then, it launched with limited card compatibility and worked at only a fraction of merchants. According to Hyundai Card's PR director, Shim Hyun-jung, the rollout was 'technically successful but commercially narrow.' 'We knew Korean users had waited a long time,' she said. 'But the infrastructure wasn't ready, and the local financial ecosystem had to adjust to Apple's model.' Apple Pay's arrival spurred a surge in Hyundai Card signups, especially among younger users. But expansion stalled as other card issuers hesitated over Apple's transaction fee demands. The service remains exclusive to Hyundai Card to this day. Not all iPhone users saw these delays as a problem. 'I didn't think of my iPhone as lacking anything,' said J.Y., a 24-year-old university student in Seoul who asked to be identified by her initials only. 'I have not really considered Apple Pay as a basic smartphone feature. I already carry a wallet in my bag.' She has used iPhones since high school and says she prefers them for the design and the way they work with her iPad and MacBook. 'I don't feel like I'm missing out. I just like how it all fits together.' Her view reflects a different kind of user, perhaps more common, shaped more by Apple's ecosystem than by Korea's mobile-first infrastructure. Among Koreans in their 20s, especially women, iPhone usage is dominant. A 2024 Gallup Korea survey found that 75 percent of women in this age group used iPhones, compared to just 55 percent of men in their 20s. 'I think the idea of a 'half-baked iPhone' is mostly a guy thing,' J.Y. added, laughing. 'My female friends and I hardly consider features like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay as basic functions of a smartphone.' Still, for a subset of Apple fans in Korea, the missing features were deeply felt. Nowhere was this more visible than in Asamo (short for "iPhone User Group" in Korean), a massive online community hosted on Naver Cafe. With more than 2.3 million members, Asamo has long served as a hub for Apple users seeking workarounds, complaining about limitations and sharing news. 'We weren't trying to be negative. We just wanted our phones to function like they should in Korea,' said Jang Soo-min, a 31-year-old marketing professional and longtime Asamo moderator. 'Galaxy users could pay, ride the bus and record a call with no effort for such a long time. iPhone users couldn't. It felt like we were using the same device with half the functionality.' Jang points out that iPhone users often had to carry physical cards, memorize instructions during calls and explain to others why their phones couldn't do what was expected. 'It was embarrassing sometimes,' he said. Jang was one of the first to test Apple Pay on day one, and he set up T-money transit support the morning it launched on both his iPhone and Apple Watch. 'This is the Korean Apple ecosystem I've been waiting for,' he said. 'Not new. Just finally complete.' Still, even with the feature list filled out, Apple's market share in Korea remains limited. As of July 2025, Gallup Korea estimates Apple holds 24 percent of the domestic market, with Samsung commanding 72 percent. 'This isn't going to cause a mass switch from Galaxy to iPhone,' said Hwang Ah-yeon from the Korea Consumer Agency. 'The people who wanted iPhones already had them. This just makes their lives easier.' And for those who switched years ago, the arrival of long-promised features isn't cause for celebration. It's more like quiet vindication. 'We made do for years,' said Jang. 'Now it does work, though not perfectly. That might not sound exciting for every iPhone user in Korea, but for those of us waiting for it, it means everything.' mjh@
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
S. Korea's foreign population reaches all-time high of 2.73 million
South Korea's foreign population has reached an all-time high of more than 2.73 million, data showed Sunday. The number of foreign nationals staying in the country for purposes including education, employment or tourism stood at just under 2,733,000 as of the end of June, marking a 1.5 percent increase (40,068 people) from the previous month, according to data from the Korea Immigration Service under the Ministry of Justice. Of the total, some 1.55 million were long-term foreign residents staying 90 days or more, who registered personal information such as name, date of birth and purpose of stay with local immigration offices. Half of these registered foreigners were found to reside in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area. The Yeongnam region, which includes major cities such as Daegu, Busan and Ulsan, was home to 317,286 (20.3 percent), followed by 200,939 (12.9 percent) in the Chungcheong region and 136,990 (8.8 percent) in the Honam region. Another 552,000 of the total foreign resident population were overseas Koreans holding F-4 visas, who established a place of residence and reported it to their local immigration office, entitling them to rights similar to those of Korean citizens, such as opening bank accounts and enrolling in the national health insurance program. The remaining 620,000 foreign nationals were short-term visitors staying fewer than 90 days, most of whom were tourists. Chinese account for one in three The largest share of foreign residents was held by Chinese nationals with 972,176, accounting for 35.6 percent of the total. They were followed by Vietnamese (341,153), Americans (196,664), Thais (173,710) and Uzbeks (98,457). When categorized by visa type, F-4 visa holders, who are foreign nationals of Korean ancestry, represented the largest group, totaling 554,895. Following them were 341,453 foreign nationals on E-9 visas, issued under the Employment Permit System, which permits stays of up to three years. Launched in 2004, the temporary worker program allows small and mid-sized companies facing labor shortages to legally hire foreign workers for low-skilled jobs. F-5 permanent residency visa holders came next at 214,036, followed by 191,297 on D-2 student visas and 171,063 on B-2 tourist visas. By age, foreign residents in their 30s made up the largest segment at 25.7 percent, followed by those in their 20s (23.1 percent), 40s (16.7 percent), 60 and older (13.5 percent), 50s (12.3 percent) and under 19 (8.7 percent). The previous all-time high foreign population was recorded in 2019 at around 2.52 million, but the figure declined for two consecutive years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, falling to 2.04 million in 2020 and 1.96 million in 2021. But as COVID-19 reached the endemic stage, the figure rebounded to about 2.51 million in 2023 and rose further to 2.65 million last year. This year, the number peaked at 2.72 million in March, then dipped to 2.71 million in April and 2.69 million in May, before reaching a new record high of 2.73 million in June.
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
100 Days to 8th CIIE: Preps Harden as Global Exhibitors Eye Business Potential in China
SHANGHAI, July 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Facing the complex international landscape and mounting challenges, China International Import Expo (CIIE) consistently acts as a platform for global business exchange. With only 100 days to go, the 8 th CIIE is set to take place in Shanghai from November 5 to 10. As of now, over 50 countries and international organizations have confirmed their participation in the Country Pavilion. Sweden and the United Arab Emirates will serve as guest countries of honor at the 8 th CIIE, while Kyrgyzstan will make its debut. To help global enterprises across sectors better integrate into the Chinese market, the Corporate Pavilion features six major exhibition areas—encompassing Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products, Automobile and Smart Mobility, Intelligent Industry & Information Technology, Consumer Goods, Food and Agriculture Products, and Trade in Services—and will continue hosting its Innovation Incubation Special Section. Driven by strong interest and participation from overseas companies, total booked exhibition space has surpassed 330,000 square meters, with 170 companies and 26 institutions becoming eight-time full-attendance exhibitors. Notably, this year's Corporate Pavilion introduces four fresh innovations, demonstrating its vibrant energy and vast collaboration opportunities for participants. The 8 th Hongqiao International Economic Forum (HQF) will convene under the theme "Opening-up for New Opportunities, Cooperation for a Shared Future". Alongside the release of the World Openness Report 2025 and the latest World Openness Index, the HQF will host over 20 parallel sessions on revitalizing multilateral cooperation, empowering digital intelligence, green and sustainable development, and a more open China. Side events will retain previous categories, while people-to-people exchange activities will add a new "Charming Friends of City" zone, inviting international friendly provinces and cities to set up their booths.
