Aluminium Trade Fair | South Korean Research Team Develops New Aluminium Alloy to Reduce the Risk of Electric Vehicle Fires

According to reports from foreign media, Dr. Hyeon-woo Son and his research team from the Department of Aluminium in the Advanced Metals Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) have successfully developed an Aluminium alloy for electric vehicles with significantly improved thermal stability. The related paper was published in the journal Materials Research and Technology. The team identified a new mechanism of the nanostructure within the Aluminium alloy and found that the thermal stability of the developed alloy is 140% higher than that of materials from leading overseas companies.

Existing Aluminium battery casing materials deteriorate due to the heat emitted by the battery, significantly increasing the risk of accidents as electric vehicles age. The newly developed Aluminium alloy enhances thermal stability by adding various trace elements to the existing 6000 series Aluminium alloys, thereby delaying the thermal degradation of the casing material caused by heat emission. The research team introduced dozens of trace elements and analyzed the nanostructure using advanced technologies such as transmission electron microscopy and 3D atom probe tomography, establishing a new database. Based on this, they identified several elements that can improve thermal stability. The Aluminium alloy with improved thermal stability can exhibit excellent performance in components used in high-temperature environments, such as electric vehicle battery casing materials or structural materials for supersonic aircraft. Traditional thermal stability improvement techniques are usually limited to the elements database long used in Aluminium alloys.

According to the Aluminium Trade Fair, the significance of this research lies in expanding the database of thermal stability enhancement technology and bringing new directions to alloy design. The researchers have completed basic research on the manufacturing technology of Aluminium alloys with excellent thermal stability and are conducting follow-up research to promote the advancement of this technology through applied research and transfer it to Korean Aluminium battery casing material production companies.