한밭대학교

Photo Description: Hanbat National University research team participating in the '2026 Basic Research Laboratory Support Project' (From left, Hanbat National University Department of Materials Science and Engineering Professors Hong Ki-ha, Kim Jeong-hwan, Koo Kyo-jin, and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Professor Park Je-hee)

- Conducting research on the development of cathode materials for next generation sodium secondary batteries combining AI and new processes

□ Hanbat National University begins research on the development of cathode materials for next generation sodium secondary batteries combining AI and new processes.

□ Hanbat National University (President Oh Yong-jun) announced that the research team of Professor Hong Ki-ha from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering was finally selected for the '2026 Basic Research Laboratory (BRL) Support Project' organized by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea, receiving a total of 1.5 billion won in research funds for 3 years from July 2026 to June 2029.

 ○ The Basic Research Laboratory Support Project is a representative collective research project that supports outstanding researchers in forming research groups to conduct creative and challenging basic research.

□ The research team of Professor Hong Ki-ha (Principal Investigator) from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Hanbat National University includes Professors Koo Kyo-jin and Kim Jeong-hwan from the same department and Professor Park Je-hee from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and was selected under the theme of 'Rapid Development Study of Novel High Entropy Na DRX Cathode Materials Based on AI' in this project.

 ○ While currently widely used lithium ion batteries offer excellent performance, price volatility and supply instability of lithium resources have been continuously pointed out as problems, whereas sodium is abundant on Earth and low in cost, attracting attention as a core material for next generation low cost secondary batteries.

 ○ However, there are still many tasks to be resolved for sodium secondary batteries to be commercialized, and in particular, the fact that a standard cathode material satisfying both price and performance like the LFP cathode material of lithium ion batteries has not yet been established is cited as the biggest limitation.

□ To solve the problem of the absence of standard cathode materials, which is the core challenge of sodium secondary batteries, Professor Hong Ki-ha's joint research team aimed to pioneer a new material group called high entropy sodium disordered rocksalt (DRX) cathode material.

 ○ This research is conducted through the organic collaboration of 4 specialized research teams covering the entire material development cycle, including material design (Hong Ki-ha), high speed synthesis (Koo Kyo-jin), structural analysis and electrochemistry (Park Je-hee), and ALD interface control (Kim Jeong-hwan), and the development outcomes are expected to expand into electrode material design principles applicable not only to sodium secondary batteries but also across next generation energy storage systems such as lithium and potassium.

 ○ A research team official said, "We will systematically identify new design principles for sodium secondary battery cathode materials and develop them into AI based material development technology to present a new paradigm in the future next generation secondary battery market."