A research team led by Dr. Han Seung-jeon at the Korea Institute of Materials Science developed a technology that simultaneously improves strength and ductility, earning the honor of being selected as one of the outstanding research achievements of government-funded research institutes in 2020.

A research team led by Dr. Han Seung-jeon of the Special Alloys Research Laboratory at the Metal Materials Research Division of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Lee Jeong-hwan), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, was selected for the '2020 Outstanding Research Achievements of Government-funded Research Institutes' and received the Minister of Science and ICT Award.

The selected technology is the 'technology for the simultaneous improvement of opposing properties of precipitation-type Cu-Ni-Si (copper, nickel, silicon) and Al-Zn (aluminum, zinc) alloys'.

This technology combines processing technology and computer design to create a microstructure different from existing ones, and applies this to copper and aluminum alloys to dramatically improve strength and ductility or strength and conductivity simultaneously.

All metals possess a tendency to seek a stable state. This is divided into structural stabilization energy and interfacial energy that hinders this process. The core of this technology lies in controlling this interfacial energy to alter the shape of the microstructure. When the strength of a metal is increased, properties such as ductility, toughness, and conductivity, which are inverse properties to strength, inevitably decrease. However, this technology is characterized by the fact that strength and its various properties can be dramatically improved simply by changing the alloy composition.

"Achieving new performance capabilities often requires alloying elements that are difficult to process in existing processes or large-scale new equipment," said Han Seung-jeon, the principal researcher and project leader. "This technology allows for the easier creation of new structures and designs alloys using only easy-to-apply elements that can be realized through standard processes, so its future applications are highly anticipated."

Meanwhile, the National Science and Technology Research Council (hereinafter the Council) has been selecting and announcing outstanding research achievements of government-funded research institutes every year since 2014 for the purpose of boosting the pride of scientists and engineers and encouraging the creation of outstanding research achievements by government-funded research institutes.

The research council selected these by prioritizing recommendations for achievements in the fields of basic, applied, and development R&D stages, including cases of groundbreaking results that are world-firsts, world-class, or equivalent, as well as cases with significant economic, industrial, and academic contributions.