Flexible and rollable? No problem!

The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) announced that a research team led by Dr. Dong-Chan Lim and Dr. So-Yeon Kim from the Energy & Environment Materials Research Division has developed a next-generation thin-film material technology that significantly improves the durability of energy and electronic devices. This technology, which combines organic and inorganic materials in a dual-layer structure, can be applied to film-based solar cells and sensors. It is particularly notable for its ability to minimize the physical stress caused by rolling or unrolling, thereby greatly enhancing mechanical durability.

Conventional energy and electronic devices often suffer defects during roll-to-roll production processes or in rollable usage environments. These issues are especially prevalent in thin-film materials with layered heterogeneous materials, where delamination (interlayer separation) occurs easily. To overcome these challenges, the research team developed a novel interfacial thin-film material and successfully resolved mechanical durability issues that previously caused defects during production.

The team created an innovative thin-film material by dual-coating mechanically flexible organic materials and mechanically robust inorganic materials. This material allows flexible devices to withstand physical and chemical stresses encountered in various environments. When used as an interfacial layer between transparent electrodes and active layers in applications like solar cells and displays, the material improves bonding properties between electrodes and active layers while simultaneously enhancing both mechanical and chemical durability.

Dr. Dong-Chan Lim, the project lead, highlighted the broad industrial applications of this breakthrough. “This technology not only significantly improves production yields in roll-to-roll manufacturing processes using film-based flexible substrates but is also applicable to diverse downstream industries such as energy, displays, and robotics. It is a key technology that can increase the localization rate of core materials and components, thereby strengthening the competitiveness of critical industries,” he explained.

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Fundamental Technology Development Program (STEAM Research Program) and the Nano and Materials Technology Development Program (Platform-Type National Core Material Research Group), as well as KIMS’fundamental research initiatives. The results were published in Nature Communications (first author: Dr. Muhammad Zahanda) and the Chemical Engineering Journal (first author: Nurul Kusuma, Ph.D. candidate). The study was featured as an Editor's Highlight in Nature Communications for its outstanding technological contribution. Currently, the research team is leveraging Korea’s largest pilot-scale roll-to-roll coating and product fabrication facilities to collaborate with industry partners. They are focused on securing continuous printing technology for rollable energy and electronic devices and accelerating the commercialization of this cutting-edge technology.

 

 

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About Korea Institute of Materials Science(KIMS)

 

KIMS is a non-profit government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea. As the only institute specializing in comprehensive materials technologies in Korea, KIMS has contributed to Korean industry by carrying out a wide range of activities related to materials science including R&D, inspection, testing&evaluation, and technology support.

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