On September 8, SAMSUNG SDI’s Pro Min-han Kim was honored with the Korea Engineer Award for September. Recognized for his contributions to ‘developing High-Ni cathode active materials with high capacity and long lifespan’, he shares the story behind his achievement.

Q. Congratulations on your award. How did you feel when you heard the news?

I didn’t expect it, so I was truly delighted when I first heard the news. Above all, I believe this award represents all the dedicated employees of SAMSUNG SDI who are working hard for the company’s growth. I am grateful to my colleagues, and I will continue to do my best going forward.

 [Pro Min-han Kim was honored with the Korea Engineer Award for his contributions to developing High-Ni cathode active materials with high capacity and long lifespan.]

Q. You received the award for developing a ‘High-Ni cathode active material with high capacity and long lifespan’. Please tell us about the background and achievements of this development.

When you ask customers what they consider the most essential requirements for batteries, they say affordable price, safety, and long lifespan. To meet these needs, we developed a High-Ni NCA cathode material with enhanced durability, achieving the world’s highest capacity of 820 mAh/cc. By increasing the nickel content to 94%, the material enables longer mileage per charge. In addition, for the same capacity, less material is required than in previous batteries, which reduces costs by lowering the amount of costly cobalt.

Q. What was the most challenging part of this project? 

As the nickel content increases, a battery undergoes rapid expansion and contraction during charging and discharging, which reduces its lifespan. To secure long lifespan, we developed particle size and distribution control technologies for cathode active materials, introduced coating techniques, and improved cleaning process*, which is one of the key steps in material synthesis.

* Cleaning process: A process that removes excess lithium which does not react with the precursor when lithium and the precursor are mixed.

I believe that ‘development is a journey of overcoming repeated failures’. This project was no exception, as we encountered many challenges. Starting 2020, we have faced numerous problems over the course of five years and had to overcome each one of them.

[Pro Kim has worked to secure technologies by filing around 50 patents]

Q. What do you think the most important attitude of engineers? 

Companies are often introduced with a defining phrase that reflects their identity. I believe we should contribute to making SAMSUNG SDI recognized as ‘SAMSUNG SDI of Technology.’ Of course, my individual effort may be limited, but if all SAMSUNG SDI employees work with a strong sense of responsibility in their respective roles, I am confident we can achieve this goal.

Furthermore, I believe that when these collective efforts come together, we will be riding on the coming ‘battery super cycle’ soon.