A multifunctional carbon nanotube fiber technology with high strength and high energy storage capacity has been developed, and it is expected to be applied to various industries such as space, aviation, and national defense along with domestic production and import substitution.

The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Lee Jeong-hwan), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on the 10th that the research team of Dr. Tae-hoon Kim of the Functional Composite Materials Research Lab of the Composite Materials Research Division and the research team of Professor Seung-jae Yang of Inha University (President Myung-woo Cho) have successfully developed the world's first multifunctional carbon nanotube fiber with both high energy storage and high strength properties.

Most energy storage and structural materials currently in use possess only one of two properties: high strength or high energy storage. The material developed by our research team utilizes carbon nanotube fibers that are lightweight, strong, and electrically conductive, possessing both of these properties simultaneously.

The research team surface-treated carbon nanotube fibers and then grew porous carbon to create a high-strength fiber-type supercapacitor. This allowed them to synthesize a new fiber-type material that retained the strength of carbon nanotube fibers while also providing energy storage properties. The developed fiber-type supercapacitor was confirmed to operate normally even while supporting heavy weight.

While existing technologies required separate battery and load-bearing materials, the material developed through this research can replace both with a single component, suggesting a new direction for future lightweight material development. This is particularly significant in that multifunctional carbon nanotube fiber technology is expected to find application in electric vehicles, drones, and aerospace, where lightweight design is crucial.

Carbon nanotube fibers are attracting attention as a next-generation new material, but there is only one company in the United States that is actually applying them to products through mass production. It is expected that the results of this study will not only lead to import substitution effects through domestic production, but also enable exports overseas.

Kim Tae-hoon, a senior researcher at the Materials Research Institute and the lead researcher, said, “If multifunctional carbon nanotube fibers are used, it can greatly help improve the driving range of future mobility such as drones.” He added, “In the future, it is expected to be applicable not only to energy storage materials but also to the space, aviation, and defense fields that require lightweight, high-strength, and high-conductivity characteristics.”

This research was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Institute of Materials Science's 'Development of Technology for Convergence-Based Fabrics for Energy Production and Storage' project, and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology's open research project '4U Composite Material Development Project'.

Additionally, the research results were published on January 5th in the journal 'Science Advances', a sister journal of Science, a world-renowned academic journal.

Meanwhile, the research team is conducting follow-up research to utilize the results of this study in bulletproof materials, ultra-light composite materials, and other areas, as well as in the mass production of CNT fibers and the development of CNT fibers for electromagnetic shielding.