January 16, 2026Jan 16, 2026
KCNA Pyongyang Times

Research into new energy materials intensified

Date: 04/03/2021 | Source: Pyongyang Times | Read original version at source

Researchers of Kim Il Sung University are conducting intensive research into design of energy materials which are indispensable in the development and utilization of natural energy resources.

“Energy materials are largely divided into those for energy conversion and energy storage. Our goal is to design materials that are highly effective in converting natural energy into electric energy and in storing the converted energy,” said Yu Chol Jun (pictured), professor and PhD, who is department chief of the materials science faculty.

He has spent several years engaged in the research into materials for photovoltaic cells.

Today, it is a dominant trend in the development of photovoltaic conversion materials for solar panels to use perovskite which can be obtained at low cost by a chemical method, instead of using expensive silicon.

However, perovskite entails some stability problems.

Yu newly designed an interface structural model of the photovoltaic material consisting of mixed halogen perovskite, Lewis base and graphene.

“Mixed halogen perovskite and graphene are widely applied as energy conversion materials. I found out that when Lewis base is added between mixed halogen perovskite and graphene to form a new interface structural model, it can improve the stability of the photovoltaic cells,” said Yu.

He also discovered that the replacement of a certain amount of titanium, which is used as a cathode activation material for sodium ion battery, by vanadium can greatly expand the storage capacity in the design of energy storage materials.

According to him, the research finding provided the scientific base for increasing the capacity of sodium ion batteries to more than double that of expensive lithium batteries at the maximum.

Yu has contributed 43 papers to SCI-class magazines and his last paper was published last January.

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