A research team in South Korea has developed a ceramic lithium-air battery cell that can allow electric cars to drive around 1,000 kilometers (621.4 miles) on a single charge.

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) said Thursday that its joint research team with Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology developed a new lithium-air battery using a new ceramic material that ensures a long battery life.

The joint team replaced organic materials of a lithium-air battery, one of the next-generation batteries having high theoretical energy density, with a ceramic material to lengthen battery life.

Lithium-oxygen batteries that work by combining lithium present in the anode with oxygen from the air have been studied as the next-generation battery technology because of its light weight, high conductivity and low cost. They are believed to be able to hold up to 10 times as much energy as the lithium-ion batteries that are currently used to power smartphones, laptops and EVs.

The new solid-state ceramic material that the research team has developed can have various applications thanks to its superior ionic and electronic conductivity.

“The new ceramic material can convey electron and lithium ion at the same time, so it could be applied to not only the lithium-air batteries but also to a wider range of other battery cells,” according to Seo Dong-hwa, a professor at UNIST and member of the research team.

By Lee Jong-hwa and Choi Mira

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