The heat-dissipating new material technology of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Lee Jeong-hwan), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has been recognized for its potential in the global heat-dissipating ceramic material market, having been named an excellent national research and development achievement.

The Korea Materials Research Institute announced on the 15th that the 'KIMS MgO (magnesia) heat dissipation new material technology' by Dr. Ahn Cheol-woo's research team at the Functional Ceramics Research Lab of the Ceramic Materials Research Headquarters was selected for the '2023 National Research and Development Excellence 100'.

MgO material has excellent heat dissipation performance, but it is difficult to manufacture and reacts with moisture in the air, so it could not be used as a heat dissipation material. KIMS MgO can be easily manufactured at low temperatures and does not react with moisture in the air, so it is expected to be used in battery thermal management to prevent electric vehicle fire accidents.

As demand for electric vehicles gradually increases, the performance of heat-dissipating materials for electronic products, including batteries, is required to improve the safety of electric vehicles.

The developed KIMS MgO material has a similar price to commercial alumina (over 90% share of the ceramic heat-dissipating filler market, thermal conductivity: 20-30 W/mK) but has more than twice the heat-dissipating performance.

The research team developed KIMS MgO material to be manufactured using the cheapest process among ceramic manufacturing processes. This is a process of heat-treating by adding a very small amount of additive of 0.2% to general MgO. Therefore, it can be easily manufactured and commercialized using existing equipment used in the ceramic industry.

The Functional Ceramics Laboratory of Materials Research Institute started developing future thermal management materials as a basic research project of the research institute in 2015. Currently, various thermal management materials including KIMS MgO are being developed. KIMS MgO material started from the original research of heat-dissipating ceramic materials as a basic research project of the research institute, and succeeded in commercialization by establishing Soulmaterial (CEO Jeong In-cheol), a research institute company. Currently, additional development research on heat-dissipating materials is being conducted, and related research is being conducted to expand the application fields to various products and markets including MgO crucibles.

Ahn Cheol-woo, a senior researcher at Materials Research Institute, said, “I would like to place significance on the fact that we have been recognized as the world’s only material that has perfectly solved all the problems of MgO materials that even leading Japanese companies have been unable to solve,” and added, “We will continue to do our best so that our country can become a leading country in the heat-dissipating ceramic material market.”

Meanwhile, the 100 Best National Research and Development Projects is a system in which the government selects excellent national research and development projects to enhance the public's understanding and interest in the role of science and technology in driving national development and to encourage pride in scientists and engineers. It has been selecting and announcing these projects every year since 2006.