The research team of Dr. Cheol-woo Ahn of the Department of Functional Ceramics at Ceramic Materials Division of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, was selected as the 'Excellent R&D performances in Government-funded Research Institute 2022'.

The selected technology is 'KIMS MgO (Magnesia), new heat-dissipation material. Although MgO has excellent heat-dissipation performance, it has a high processing cost due to the high manufacturing temperature and a problem of reacting with moisture in the air. Hence, it has not been used as a heat-dissipation material for the past 200 years. The KIMS MgO is a new MgO that has a low manufacturing temperature and provides moisture stability. Therefore, this can prevent electric vehicle fires and dramatically improve the thermal management performance of electronic components.

Due to the low performance of heat dissipation materials for electronic products, various accidents such as electric vehicle fires have occurred. Namely, thermal management of electronic products is directly related to public safety, so it is urgent to replace them with high-performance new materials. Compared to commercial alumina (occupying more than 90% of ceramic heat radiation filler market, thermal conductivity: 20~30W/mK), MgO is the only material with a similar price and superior heat dissipation performance (thermal conductivity of KIMS MgO: 55~65 W/mK), so the research team determined that MgO was the only material that could replace commercially available alumina.

KIMS MgO is manufactured with the cheapest process among ceramic manufacturing processes. Adding 0.2 at.% additives to MgO, the mixture becomes KIMS MgO. Hence, it can be applied immediately in the ceramic industry. In particular, KIMS MgO is produced at a lower temperature (1,100-1,400℃) than commercial alumina (1,500-1,600℃) and does not react with moisture in the air.

Dr. Cheol-woo Ahn (leading principal researcher, KIMS) said “KIMS MgO is the only material in the world, that completely solves all the problems of MgO materials, and it will be a good opportunity for Korea to become a leading country in the heat-dissipating ceramic material market.

In order to commercialize KIMS MgO, KIMS established SOULMATERIAL, a Research Institute Spin-off Company, in September 2021. SOULMATERIAL Co., Ltd. has been recognized for its potential by being selected as an excellent company among the top 100 start-ups (20 companies, by the Ministry of SMEs and Start-ups, in 2022).

Meanwhile, the National Science and Technology Research Council (hereafter referred to as the Research Council) has been selecting and announcing annually since 2014, for the purpose of encouraging the creation of excellent research results in government-funded research institutes and instilling pride in scientists and engineers with excellent research results from government-funded research institutes. For the performance creation fields in the basic-application-development R&D stage, the Research Council preferentially recommends the world's first and highest level or equivalent groundbreaking performance creation cases, as well as performance cases with great economic, industrial, and academic contributions.