Professor Taesung Kim's research team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering/Department of Nanoscience and Technology/Department of Semiconductor Convergence Engineering, along with Professor Jin Kon Kim's research team at POSTECH and Professor Hong Chul Moon's research team at University of Seoul, have announced the development of a new concept synthesis process technology for producing mesoporous transition metal oxides on flexible substrates by utilizing the synergy effect of low-temperature plasma and thermal processes.

Mesoporous metal oxides (MMOs) possess highly advantageous properties such as high surface area and porosity, making them widely used in high-performance energy storage/conversion, sensors, catalysis, etc. However, the conventional synthesis methods require high-temperature sintering processes, making it impossible to synthesize directly on flexible substrates. The widely used soft-template method for MMO fabrication involves the self-assembly of organic support and inorganic precursor to form organic-inorganic composites, followed by the removal of the organic support and the reaction of the inorganic precursor, which traditionally necessitates high-temperature sintering. In this study, the use of low-temperature plasma was employed to lower the synthesis temperature, addressing these issues. The synergy effect between heat and plasma enabled rapid synthesis of various types of MMOs at temperatures of 150-200°C. Additionally, mesoporous vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) was synthesized on a polyimide substrate, realizing flexible energy storage devices.

Professor Taesung Kim of Sungkyunkwan University, who developed the low-temperature plasma-based synthesis technology, stated, "The discovery of a method to directly synthesize on flexible substrates in this research will present a new paradigm in the field of smart energy storage/conversion devices."

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning's Creative-Pioneering Researchers Program, Basic Research Program in the field of Science and Technology, and the Nano and Material Technology Development Program (Nano Convergence) and was published in the international journal Advanced Materials on January 19th.

※ Paper Title: Low-Temperature, Universal Synthetic Route for Mesoporous Metal Oxides by Exploiting Synergistic Effect of Thermal Activation and Plasma

※ Authors: Taesung Kim, Jin Kon Kim, Hong Chul Moon (Corresponding author), Geon Woo Kim, Hyun Ho Seok (Co-first authors)

※ DOI: 10.1002/adma.202311809

■ Development of High-Performance Flexible Energy Storage Materials Based on Low-Temperature Plasma

■ The research was led by Professor Tae Sung Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (corresponding author), and Hyun Ho Seok, a doctoral candidate (first author)