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KAIST Extends Lifespan of Graphite-Free Anode-Free Batteries That Could Make EV Batteries Smaller and Lighter
Korean researchers have developed a technology that could make electric-vehicle (EV) batteries smaller and lighter while helping EVs travel farther on a single charge. A KAIST research team has proposed a new solution to a persistent problem in anode-free batteries, which reduce weight and volume by eliminating anode materials such as graphite that normally store lithium during charging. In these batteries, lithium can grow into sharp, spike-like structures that shorten battery life. The key lies in using nanofabrication techniques employed in semiconductor manufacturing to create uniform sites for lithium deposition and promote the formation of a robust protective layer.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on September 22 that a joint research team led by Professors Jinwoo Lee and Hee-Tae Jung from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, working with researchers from Kyungpook National University (President Heo Young-woo) and the National NanoFab Center (President Park Heung Soo), has developed a new technology that extends the lifespan of anode-free batteries by applying the ultrafine fabrication processes used in semiconductor device manufacturing to batteries.
Conventional lithium-ion batteries store lithium in an anode material such as graphite during charging. Anode-free batteries, by contrast, deposit lithium directly onto a thin copper foil without a separate anode material. Because they eliminate the weight and volume that the anode material would otherwise occupy, they are drawing attention as a next-generation technology capable of packing more energy into a battery of the same size.
However, repeated charging and discharging cause lithium to deposit unevenly on the copper foil, growing into branch- or spike-like structures known as dendrites. The protective layer over the lithium also becomes unstable, causing the battery’s performance and lifespan to deteriorate rapidly. This is one of the most significant obstacles standing in the way of commercializing anode-free batteries.
Some previous approaches to extending the lifespan of anode-free batteries involved adding excess lithium or applying a thick protective layer to the surface. These methods provide extra lithium to compensate for losses during use or coat the surface with a protective film. However, adding more material makes the battery heavier and thicker, undercutting the very advantage of a small, lightweight anode-free battery.
To minimize added weight and volume, the research team modified the copper foil on which lithium is deposited. Much like marking out closely spaced parking bays in a flat lot, the team created an array of microscopic tube-shaped structures on the copper surface so that lithium spreads out and deposits evenly rather than concentrating in one spot.
To do this, the team used a process called secondary sputtering lithography (SSL), used for the precise micromachining of semiconductors. Fabricating microscopic tubes about 300 nanometers in diameter and 150 nanometers in height on the copper foil increased the surface area available for lithium deposition to about four times that of flat copper foil, helping to reduce localized, spike-like lithium growth.
The team then coated the copper foil with a roughly 10-nanometer-thick layer of MXene, a two-dimensional material, forming an ultrathin film only a few thousandths the thickness of a human hair. Rather than serving as a finished protective layer itself, the MXene acts like a primer that draws together the components needed to form one. In the LiPF6-based electrolyte used in the study, the MXene surface promotes the formation of a robust protective layer rich in lithium fluoride (LiF) as the battery operates.
This protective layer reduces unwanted reactions between the lithium and the electrolyte and also suppresses the spike-like growth of lithium. By examining electrode surfaces and cross sections while minimizing air exposure, the research team confirmed that a nanoscale protective layer forms uniformly along the MXene and identified the mechanism behind its formation. The analysis employed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), among other techniques.
Professor Jinwoo Lee said, “This study shows how ultrafine fabrication techniques used in semiconductor manufacturing can create both uniform sites for lithium deposition and a stable protective layer without changing the bulk electrolyte formulation or adding excess lithium.” He added that the technology is expected to serve as a foundation for accelerating the commercialization of high-energy anode-free batteries by extending battery life while minimizing increases in weight and volume.
KAIST researchers Eunji Kim, Hyunju Jung, and Jinuk Kim participated as co-first authors on the study. The findings were published online in the international journal Advanced Functional Materials on September 1.
Paper title: Anion-Interactive Anode Interfaces for Stable Anode-Free Lithium Metal Batteries,
DOI 10.1002/adfm.77931
Author information: Eunji Kim (KAIST/National NanoFab Center, co-first author), Hyunju Jung (KAIST, co-first author), Jinuk Kim (KAIST, co-first author), Hee-Tae Jung (KAIST, corresponding author), Yonghee Lee (Kyungpook National University, corresponding author), Jinwoo Lee (KAIST, corresponding author)
This research was supported by the Nano&Material Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science and ICT (RS-2026-25542167), as well as the Global Semiconductor Advanced Fab Utilization Project through the National Nano Fab Center (NNFC). This work was also supported by Semiconductor-Secondary Battery Interfacing Platform Technology Development Project of NNFC.
2026.09.22 View 3057 -
KAIST Develops a Strategy to Balance Radical Generation and Catalyst Regeneration, Enabling Challenging Chemical Reactions
Radicals, atoms or molecules that readily react with other substances to form new bonds, are useful tools for building complex substances such as pharmaceuticals. But even when a radical is generated efficiently, the reaction cannot continue unless the catalyst returns to its original state. A KAIST research team has developed a new strategy that balances radical generation and catalyst regeneration, broadening the possibility of using even substrates that are difficult to activate to synthesize the complex molecules needed for pharmaceuticals and other applications.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on September 20 that a research team led by Professor Sarah Yunmi Lee from the Department of Chemistry has developed a method that uses a ligand, a molecule that attaches to a metal catalyst and controls its properties, to effectively regulate the process by which a copper catalyst generates a radical and then returns to its original state.
The team used a cyclopropenimine (CPI)-based ligand to tune the copper catalyst’s redox behavior, helping it generate radicals and return to its active state.
In this study, the team used tertiary alkyl halides, compounds where bromine or chlorine is attached to a tertiary carbon center, as starting materials. When the copper catalyst breaks this bond, a highly reactive radical is generated, and this radical then forms a new carbon–carbon bond with another part of the same molecule, creating a ring-shaped structure. The process is similar to tying the two loose ends of a string together to form a loop. This is called a radical cyclization reaction.
When the team compared several types of ligands, they found that that generating more radicals did not necessarily lead to more of the desired product. Some ligands were very effective at generating radicals but produced almost none of the final product.
The best-performing CPI-based ligand, however, allowed radical generation and catalyst regeneration to proceed in balance. If the catalyst is compared to a worker performing a task repeatedly, the CPI ligand acts as a helper that lets the worker move on to the next task without stopping after finishing one.
As a result, the team synthesized in high yields 3,3-disubstituted oxindoles, compounds with a ring framework relevant to medicinal chemistry used in pharmaceuticals and bioactive substances.
Notably, substrates bearing bromine reacted efficiently even at room temperature. The team also succeeded in reacting substrates with strong carbon-chlorine bonds that do not break easily. This demonstrated that even tertiary alkyl chlorides, which had previously been difficult to handle, can now be used to synthesize a range of oxindole compounds that were difficult to make before.
The key finding of this study is that generating radicals well is not enough on its own. Rather than simply raising the reactivity of a single step, the team showed that balancing the entire catalytic cycle, including both radical generation and catalyst regeneration, makes it possible to design more efficient catalysts and extend the approach to new reactions.
This principle could expand the range of challenging substrates available for chemical synthesis. It may also help researchers develop more efficient methods for constructing complex molecules relevant to pharmaceuticals and other bioactive compounds under milder conditions.
Professor Sarah Yunmi Lee said, " This study shows that efficient radical generation alone is not sufficient and that the different processes within a catalytic cycle must proceed in balance." She added, "We expect this approach can be applied to the development of new radical-based catalytic reactions that make use of challenging substrates that have previously been difficult to activate."
The study, with Sarah Jang, a student in the integrated master’s–PhD program in the Department of Chemistry at KAIST, and Seongryeol Jeung, who earned a master’s degree at Yonsei University, as co-first authors, and with Sumin Kim, an integrated master's and PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at KAIST, also participating, was published online on August 3 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), an international journal published by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Paper title: Cyclopropenimine-Enabled Redox Control in Copper-Catalyzed Radical Cyclization to 3,3-Disubstituted Oxindoles
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6c09015
Author information: Sarah Jang (KAIST, co-first author), Seongryeol Jeung (Yonsei University, co-first author), Sumin Kim (KAIST, third author), Sarah Yunmi Lee (KAIST, corresponding author)
This research was supported by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation under Project SSTF-BA2202-06.
2026.09.21 View 2503 -
KAIST Turns Once-Troublesome Protons into an Energy Storage Resource for Batteries
Batteries that use water-based electrolytes have a relatively low risk of fire and are inexpensive, but they have faced limitations in storing large amounts of energy. KAIST researchers have succeeded in using a reaction previously regarded as a “troublemaker” that degrades battery performance to store more energy instead. This achievement opens up the possibility of next-generation water-based batteries capable of storing more energy while charging and discharging rapidly.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 19th that a research team led by Sarah S. Park from the Department of Chemistry has developed a new electrode material that sequentially stores zinc ions (Zn²⁺) and protons. The material is based on a two-dimensional conductive metal–organic framework (MOF), a structure in which metals and organic molecules are connected to form microscopic pores.
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries use water-based electrolytes. An electrolyte is a substance that allows ions to move inside a battery. Because aqueous zinc-ion batteries have a relatively low risk of fire, are inexpensive, and impose a low environmental burden, they are attracting attention as a next-generation option for large-scale energy storage systems (ESS).
Because zinc ions carry electrical charge, are divalent ions and slow movement inside electrodes, making it difficult to achieve both high capacity and fast charge–discharge performance at the same time. Protons, by contrast, are extremely small and can move very quickly, making them an ideal charge carrier. However, when too many protons enter an electrode, byproducts form on the electrode surface, interfering with the movement of zinc ions and lowering battery performance. For this reason, protons have traditionally been regarded as “troublemakers” that degrade battery performance, and research has focused on suppressing their reactions.
The research team took a different approach. Instead of suppressing proton reactions, the research team precisely controlled the order in which zinc ions and protons are stored so that both could be used for energy storage.
To accomplish this, they introduced amine functional groups into the micropores of a two-dimensional conductive MOF, designing the material so that it would react with protons only when a certain voltage was reached. By designing the amine functional groups to store protons only at a specific voltage, the researchers enabled zinc ions to be stored first, followed by the additional storage of protons.
The principle is similar to first placing large pebbles in an empty bottle and then filling the gaps between them with fine sand. The electrode is used more efficiently by storing the relatively large zinc ions first and then adding the smaller protons.
In practice, zinc ions were stored first in the higher-voltage range, while protons were additionally stored as the voltage decreased. In the Cu₃(HHTATP)₂ electrode material developed by the research team, zinc ions and protons participated in energy storage sequentially in different voltage ranges.
The sequence is particularly important. If protons react too early, by-products may form and obstruct the movement of zinc ions. By enabling protons to react only after the zinc ions had been stored, the researchers reduced interference between the two storage processes.
The newly developed electrode material achieved a high storage capacity of 368.7 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹. In simple terms, this means that a small amount of electrode material can store a large amount of electricity.
Even when the charging and discharging rate was increased sixteenfold, the electrode retained 46.9% of its initial storage capacity—nearly half. Batteries generally store less energy as their charging and discharging rates increase, but the new electrode maintained substantial storage capacity even under rapid charging and discharging conditions. It also demonstrated stable performance after more than 500 rapid charge–discharge cycles.
Using various X-ray analysis techniques, the research team confirmed that zinc ions were stored first, followed by additional proton storage. The researchers also found that the process of storing and subsequently releasing protons could be repeated.
This study is significant because it overcomes the difficulty of simultaneously achieving high capacity and rapid ion transport in porous electrode materials. In particular, it presents a new direction for developing next-generation aqueous zinc-ion batteries by demonstrating that the storage sequence of different ions can be controlled through molecular-level design.
The findings present a new design approach that could enable safe and economical aqueous zinc-ion batteries to store more energy while charging and discharging rapidly. The approach is expected to help improve the performance of water-based batteries used in applications such as large-scale energy storage systems.
Professor Sarah S. Park from KAIST said, “This study demonstrates that protons, previously regarded as ‘troublemakers’ that could degrade battery performance, can instead be used to store more energy. We expect that applying this principle to various electrode materials will lead to the development of batteries capable of rapidly storing larger amounts of energy.”
POSTECH doctoral student Geunchan Park and master student Gyuwon Lee, participated as co-first authors. The study was published in the international chemistry journal Chem on July 7.
Paper title: Sequential Zn²⁺–H⁺ Storage in a 2D Conductive Metal–Organic Framework for Advanced Aqueous Zinc-Ion Battery
DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2026.103129
Author information: Geunchan Park (co-first author), Gyuwon Lee (co-first author), Kangmin Kim (second author), Sarah S. Park (corresponding author)
This research was supported by the Basic Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea and the National Supercomputing Center.
2026.08.19 View 3730 -
KAIST Controls the Rotation Direction of Light Without Complex New Materials
A new pathway has opened for controlling the rotation direction of light simply by changing how molecules are arranged, without having to synthesize complex new materials. Circularly polarized light is a special form of light that travels while rotating like a pinwheel either to the left or to the right. Because different rotation directions can carry different information, it is drawing attention as a key light source for next-generation displays, optical communications, and security technologies. KAIST researchers have developed a platform technology that arranges symmetric molecules into “microscopic pinwheels,” enabling circularly polarized light with a desired rotation direction.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on August 14 that a research team led by Professor Dong Ki Yoon from the Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with researchers from Chungnam National University, Ajou University, Yonsei University, and Japan’s RIKEN, has developed a technology that spatially confines symmetric non-chiral liquid crystal molecules and applies an electric field to form micrometer-scale chiral pinwheel structures, then permanently replicates them onto polymer nanofibers.
Chirality refers to the property of an object whose mirror image cannot be perfectly superimposed on the original, like a person’s left and right hands. Chirality is a key property not only of biological molecules such as proteins and DNA, but also of optical materials used in next-generation displays, optical sensors, and optical communications.
Until now, producing chiral optical materials has generally required the complex synthesis of molecules with asymmetric structures or the addition of large amounts of chiral substances. This has made fabrication complicated, limited the range of usable materials, and made it difficult to realize chiral structures with the same handedness over a large area.
To address this challenge, the research team proposed a new approach based on the idea that “structure creates function.”
The team applied to molecules the same principle by which the same sheet of paper can form either a clockwise or counterclockwise pinwheel depending on how it is folded. They focused on the fact that even symmetric molecules can form structures with different handedness depending on how they assemble.
The researchers first induced rod-shaped molecules to self-assemble into microscopic pinwheel-like structures. They then added an extremely small amount of chiral additive, less than 1% of the total material, to guide all of the pinwheels to face the same direction. The team then successfully replicated this structure onto polymer nanofibers.
When a conventional luminescent material was coated onto this structure, circularly polarized light rotating in opposite directions was emitted depending not on the luminescent material itself, but on the direction of the pinwheel structure. Circularly polarized light is a special form of light that rotates to the left or right as it travels, and because each rotation direction can carry different information, it can be used in next-generation displays, optical communications, and anti-counterfeiting technologies.
In other words, the study showed that the properties of light can be controlled simply by changing the structure on which a light-emitting material is placed, rather than by changing the light-emitting material itself. Put simply, just as the same LEGO blocks can form completely different shapes depending on how they are assembled, the same molecules can produce different optical properties depending only on how they are arranged.
Professor Dong Ki Yoon said, “The key point of this study is that we controlled the rotation direction of light not through the complex chemical structure of chiral molecules, but only through the way molecules are arranged,” adding, “This work presents a new optical material design principle that can be applied to next-generation displays, AR and VR optical devices, polarization sensors, and optical communications without the need to develop complex new materials.”
Jeong Yeon Han, the first author and a Ph.D. candidate, explained, “In conventional approaches, left-handed and right-handed structures tended to form together, canceling out chiral properties. In this study, however, we succeeded in aligning the structures in a single direction over a large area by designing an extremely small amount of additive to select only one rotation direction.”
This study was led by Ph.D. candidate Jeong Yeon Han as the first author, and the research results were published in the international journal Nature Communications on August 05.
Paper title: Microchiral pinwheel arrays based on achiral molecules,
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-76089-z
Authors: Jeong Yeon Han (first author), Won Kyung Park, Byeongil Noh, Fumito Araoka, Sungwook Jung, Byeong Hak Jhun, Youngmin You, Yoonsu Park, Kyung Jin Lee*, Jung-Moo Heo*, and Dong Ki Yoon* (*corresponding authors)
This research was supported by the Technology Innovation Program of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the InnoCORE Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the National Research Foundation of Korea.
2026.08.14 View 3983 -
KAIST Develops High-Efficiency, Eco-Friendly Hydrogen Separation Membrane That Filters Hydrogen Through a Molecular “Network”
For hydrogen to be widely used as a clean energy source in everyday life, technologies that can extract only hydrogen with high purity from mixed gases are essential. KAIST researchers have presented a new strategy for developing high-performance separation membranes that can selectively filter hydrogen for clean hydrogen energy production.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 13th of August that a research team led by Professor Tae-Hyun Bae of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has successfully introduced hydrogen-selective transport pathways at the angstrom scale inside polymer membranes and clarified their separation performance through the concept of “network completeness.”
*Angstrom (Å): An extremely small unit of length used to measure wavelengths of light or the size of atoms and molecules. One angstrom is one hundred-millionth of a centimeter, or one ten-billionth of a meter, roughly one-millionth the thickness of a human hair.
Hydrogen is drawing attention as an eco-friendly energy source because it does not emit pollutants when used. However, separating hydrogen with high purity from mixed gases generated during production remains a key challenge for commercialization.
Crystalline porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are advantageous because their pores can be designed uniformly. However, they are difficult to fabricate over large areas without defects and have limitations in separating small molecules such as hydrogen. Polymer membranes, by contrast, are easier to process and scale up to large areas, but because their pore formation is difficult to control precisely, it has been challenging to raise their separation performance beyond a certain level.
To combine the advantages of both types of materials, the research team designed a modular network structure in which polymer chains are linked by crosslinkers. In this process, the team focused on the limitation that conventional indicators such as the degree of crosslinking (CD) and effective crosslinking degree (ECD), which have been used to describe the extent of crosslinking, cannot determine whether pores useful for separation have actually been formed.
The researchers therefore proposed a new metric called the Bridge Connectivity Degree (BCD), which refers to the proportion of crosslinkers that are connected at both ends to form complete pathways. This made it possible to quantitatively apply the concept of “complete framework connectivity,” which has been emphasized in inorganic porous materials, to polymer networks as well.
The newly developed membrane, ms-oDMB-DB50, achieved a high bridge connectivity degree of 73%, and both its hydrogen permeability and hydrogen/nitrogen selectivity improved significantly compared with the original material, DB50. Analysis showed that the membrane contains numerous ultramicropores smaller than 3 Å, which carbon dioxide cannot access. The research team also proposed a “density-probe method,” using helium molecules, which are smaller than hydrogen, as probes to experimentally verify the existence of these ultramicropores.
The newly developed membrane also operated stably for 100 hours without any loss of performance. Its tensile strength, the force the membrane can withstand without breaking, was about twice that of previously reported high-performance polymer membranes, confirming that it also has the robust durability needed for industrial processes.
Dr. Hongju Lee said, “There have been previous attempts to combine the advantages of these two types of materials, but this study is different in that it defines ‘how completely the network is connected’ as a quantitative value and directly links that value to separation performance,” adding, “We hope this study will serve as a starting point for extending reticular synthesis, a design principle used for inorganic molecular sieves, to polymer membranes.”
Professor Tae-Hyun Bae said, “By stitching polymer chains together with crosslinkers that fit together like Lego blocks, we formed a network inside the membrane that selectively allows only small hydrogen gas molecules to pass through.”
This paper was led by Dr. Hongju Lee, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, as first author, with Professor Tae-Hyun Bae as corresponding author. The research was published on July 23 in the international journal Nature Communications.
Paper title: Network completeness enables angstrom-scale transport pathways in polymer membranes,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73860-
Author information: Hongju Lee, formerly of KAIST and currently at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, first author; Suhyeon Choi, KAIST, second author; and Tae-Hyun Bae, KAIST, corresponding author
This research was supported by the 2025 Global C.L.E.A.N. Project and the Mid-Career Researcher Program under the Basic Research Program, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
2026.08.13 View 3030 -
KAIST Develops Low-Temperature Technique for Growing Crystal-Aligned Semiconductor Films
Building next-generation semiconductors and low-power electronic devices requires precisely stacking materials with different functions. In this process, it is essential to preserve each material's intrinsic properties, as well as the interface where the two materials meet, without damage. Layered van der Waals materials, including transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), have attracted considerable attention as next-generation semiconductor platforms because their layers interact through weak forces, enabling different materials to be stacked while maintaining atomically clean interfaces.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 27th of July that a research team led by Professor Joonki Suh from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Bonggeun Shong's team at Hanyang University and Professor Yimo Han's team at Rice University in the United States, has developed a new semiconductor manufacturing technique based on atomic layer deposition (ALD). ALD is a thin-film deposition process in which semiconductor precursor are supplied sequentially, enabling uniform thin films to be deposited with atomic-level control over their thickness.
The research team focused on van der Waals materials. These two-dimensional semiconductor materials consist of multiple atomic layers held together by weak interlayer forces, allowing them to be peeled apart into sheets as thin as paper. Because different materials can be freely stacked, van der Waals materials are attracting attention as key building blocks for next-generation AI chips and ultra-low-power semiconductor devices.
However, their chemically stable surfaces make it difficult to grow new semiconductor layers in a uniformly aligned orientation. This challenge becomes even greater at lower temperatures, where atoms tend to nucleate and grow in random directions, making it difficult to produce high-performance semiconductor films.
The research team developed a new method that allows tellurium (Te)-containing precursors—molecular building blocks used to fabricate semiconductors—to move freely across the surface, find the most energetically stable positions, and form a thin film.
Tellurium is attracting attention as a key material for next-generation semiconductors and optoelectronic devices, including photodetectors and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), because it combines highly direction-dependent electrical conductivity with excellent light-controlling properties.
Using this approach, the research team succeeded in achieving epitaxial growth of tellurium uniformly in a single direction on van der Waals materials— next-generation two-dimensional semiconductor materials composed of multiple atomically thin layers stacked like sheets of paper— at a low temperature of 150°C using ALD. In epitaxial growth, a new semiconductor film grows in an ordered manner following the atomic arrangement of the underlying crystal, enabling the precise fabrication of high-quality semiconductor films. This process is comparable to stacking bricks neatly in the same direction rather than placing them randomly, which can improve electrical transport and enhance semiconductor performance.
The researchers also confirmed that the technology could be applied to a range of van der Waals materials, including tungsten diselenide (WSe2), molybdenum disulfide (MoSS), rhenium diselenide (ReSe2), and mica. This demonstrates that the method is not limited to a single material but can be broadly used with various next-generation semiconductor materials.
The team further used the resulting semiconductor films to fabricate transistors, key semiconductor devices that control the flow of electrical current, as well as optoelectronic devices that detect or emit light. This demonstrated that the new manufacturing technology is not confined to laboratory-scale material growth but can also be applied to the fabrication of functional semiconductor devices.
"This study is the first to demonstrate that high-quality semiconductor films can be grown on van der Waals materials at low temperature without damaging the underlying materials," said Professor Suh. "We expect this technology to serve as a key manufacturing platform for integrating a wide range of next-generation semiconductors on a single chip," he added.
The study, with Changhwan Kim, a doctoral student, as first author and Professor Suh as corresponding author, was published in the journal Science Advances on July 24.
Paper title: Van der Waals template-encoded soft epitaxy of tellurium enabled by atomic layer deposition
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aef1430
Author information: Changhwan Kim (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology / Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, first author) and Joonki Suh (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, corresponding author)
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, under the Ministry of Science and ICT.
2026.07.27 View 3162 -
KAIST identifies a molecular “switch” that activates cell growth signaling, suggesting a potential basis for next-generation anticancer therapy
Cells carry their own growth switches. When enough nutrients—amino acids in particular—are available, cells flip this switch on and begin to grow. Researchers at KAIST and Yonsei University have now uncovered the molecular mechanism by which amino acid signals activate this cellular growth switch. The findings are expected to open a new avenue for anticancer therapies that target abnormal growth signaling in tumor cells.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on July 26 that a research team led by Professors Hee-Sung Park and Jin Young Kang from the Department of Chemistry, working with Professor Sunghoon Kim's team from Yonsei University, has identified a molecular mechanism that links amino acid stimulation to mTORC1-dependent growth signaling.
Cells continually monitor whether enough amino acids—the basic building blocks of proteins—are available in their surroundings, and adjust their growth, protein synthesis, and energy use accordingly. Central to this process is mTORC1 (mammalian Target of Rapamycin Complex 1), a protein complex that functions as the cell's growth switch.
mTORC1 promotes cell growth, protein synthesis, and metabolism when nutrients and energy are abundant. But when mTORC1 becomes excessively active, cells can grow and proliferate beyond what is needed—a pattern of dysregulation observed in numerous cancers. For this reason, mTORC1 has long been considered a prime target for anticancer drug development. Exactly how cells detect external nutrient cues and translate them into mTORC1 activation, however, has remained incompletely understood.
The research team focused on the multi-tRNA synthetase complex (MSC), a large protein assembly composed of multiple aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and scaffold proteins. While aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are best known for their essential role in protein synthesis – attaching specific amino acids to their cognate tRNAs – the team showed that, in response to amino acid stimulation the MSC releases LARS1, thereby linking nutrient availability to growth signaling.
The key player within the MSC turned out to be a protein called LARS1 (leucyl-tRNA synthetase 1), an enzyme that attaches leucine to its corresponding tRNA and also functions as an intracellular leucine sensor. When cells receive a signal that nutrients are sufficient, LARS1 undergoes phosphorylation—a modification in which a small chemical tag is attached to a protein, altering its function or binding behavior.
The relationship can be pictured this way: the MSC is a control center where multiple proteins wait on standby, and LARS1 is the field agent dispatched to flip on the growth switch. When nutrients become abundant, LARS1 receives a phosphorylation "deployment signal," dissociates from IARS1, the protein that anchors LARS1 to the MSC, and is thereby released from the complex. The freed LARS1 then goes on to activate mTORC1.
In other words, when nutrients are scarce, LARS1 stays bound within the MSC and the growth signal remains off. Once nutrients become sufficient, LARS1 is released from the MSC and switches on mTORC1.
To investigate the structural basis of this process, the team used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), a technique that visualizes protein complexes in three dimensions in near-atomic resolution by rapidly freezing samples at extremely low temperatures. This allowed the researchers to determine how LARS1 and IARS1 bind to each other and to structurally explain how phosphorylation could disrupt their interaction.
The results showed that LARS1 and IARS1 are normally bound tightly, but amino acid stimulation induces the phosphorylation of LARS1, weakening its interaction with IARS1. This allows LARS1 to dissociate from the MSC and activate mTORC1.
The researchers also engineered phosphomimetic LARS1 variants—mutant proteins designed to imitate the phosphorylated state—and found that these variants substantially enhanced mTORC1 activity. This confirmed that the phosphorylation of LARS1 functions as the key molecular switch converting a nutrient signal into a cell growth signal.
The significance of this study lies in mapping, in concrete molecular detail, how cells sense amino acids and use that information to activate their growth switch. In particular, the study revealed that, upon receiving nutrient signals, the MSC—a complex involved in protein synthesis—releases its constituent protein LARS1, which then activates cellular growth signaling.
Some existing anticancer drugs work by directly inhibiting mTORC1, the cell's growth switch. However, because mTORC1 is also required for normal cellular growth and metabolism, its direct inhibition may also affect normal cells.
The research team expects that further identifying the kinase responsible for phosphorylating LARS1, along with its regulatory mechanism, could enable a more precise anticancer strategy—one that intercepts the growth signal further upstream, before it reaches mTORC1, rather than blocking mTORC1 itself.
The study was co-first-authored by Youjin Kim and Joo-Chan Kim from KAIST's Department of Chemistry and was published online in Nature Communications on June 11.
Paper title: Cryo-EM structure of the LARS1:IARS1 complex reveals a nutrient-responsive switch controlling mTORC1 signaling
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74085-x
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (grant nos. RS-2026-25482352 to H.S.P., RS-2024-00344154 to J.Y.K., and NRF-2021R1A3B1076605 to S.K.) and PNCC (grant no. 160183).
2026.07.27 View 4478 -
KAIST Develops a Molecular Platform for the Selective Control of Oxygen Reaction Pathways
Controlling how oxygen reacts is important for improving technologies such as batteries, fuel cells, and environmentally sustainable chemical processes. A KAIST research team has developed a new molecular system that can selectively switch the pathway through which electrons are transferred during oxygen activation. The findings are expected to provide a fundamental design principle for next-generation catalysts and energy-conversion technologies.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 22nd of July that a research team led by Professor Seung Jun Hwang from the Department of Chemistry has developed a molecular system capable of directing oxygen activation along a selected electron-transfer pathway. By combining germanium with a molecular framework that can store and transfer electrons, the team established a design principle for selectively switching oxygen activation between two- and four-electron pathways.
Catalysts for controlling oxygen reactions have traditionally been developed around transition-metal centers such as iron, cobalt, and nickel. Germanium, by contrast, is a main-group element in the same group of the periodic table as silicon and has generally been considered less suitable for reactions requiring the coordinated transfer of several electrons.
To overcome this limitation, the research team combined germanium with a redox-active ligand, a molecular framework capable of storing, accepting, and transferring electrons. The ligand serves as an electron reservoir and cooperates with the germanium center, allowing the entire molecular structure to participate in multielectron reactions.
When oxygen reacts, the products and reaction outcomes depend on whether two or four electrons are transferred. In general, two-electron oxygen reduction produces hydrogen peroxide, while four-electron reduction produces water. Selectively controlling these pathways is therefore an important challenge in the development of batteries, fuel cells, and greener chemical catalysts.
The study presents a rare example of a main-group molecular system in which two- and four-electron reactivity can be selectively accessed within the same underlying molecular framework. This approach broadens the range of elements that may be considered in catalyst design and provides an alternative strategy to relying exclusively on transition metals.
The team also succeeded in isolating and analyzing a germanium compound representing the two-electron stage of the reaction, which they stabilized by attaching a methyl group to the germanium complex. Remarkably, the germanium atom in this compound could both donate and accept electrons, providing an important clue to how the system controls different reaction pathways.
The team also confirmed the practical potential of the new system. Under mild, light-free conditions, the germanium complex removed halogen atoms such as bromine and chlorine from organic compounds and regenerated alkenes (organic compounds containing a carbon-carbon double bond), which are widely used as raw materials for pharmaceuticals, plastics, and other chemical products. These results suggest that useful chemical feedstocks could be produced through simpler and potentially more energy-efficient processes.
“We expect these findings to inform the development of next-generation catalysts for energy conversion and to contribute to more selective and efficient chemical processes.” said Professor Hwang.
The study was conducted by Sung Gyu Kim and Jinrok Oh, currently postdoctoral researchers in the KAIST Department of Chemistry, and Dae Eui Choi, a student in the combined master’s and doctoral program in the Department of Chemistry at POSTECH. The results were published online in the international journal Chem on July 6.
Paper title: Germanium Ligand Redox Cooperativity: A Key to Ambiphilicity and Switchable Two- and Four-Electron Transfer
DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2026.103127
This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea grants funded by the Korean government through the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2021R1C1C1010220 and RS-2025-02216980), and by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation under Project No. SSTF-BA2101-09. Sung Gyu Kim received research fellowship support from the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Education (RS-2024-00415390).
2026.07.22 View 3961 -
KAIST: Dementia-Causing Substance Turns On a Therapeutic “Switch”
A substance that worsens dementia has become a “switch” that initiates treatment. KAIST researchers have developed a new therapeutic approach that uses hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a reactive oxygen species that damages cells and increases in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, to activate a drug selectively in diseased brain tissue. The team also confirmed improvements in cognitive function through animal experiments, presenting a new possibility for next-generation dementia treatment.
KAIST announced on the 2nd that a research team led by Professor Mi Hee Lim of the Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with Professor Mingeun Kim of Chonnam National University, Dr. Chul-Ho Lee and Dr. Kyoung-Shim Kim of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and Dr. Young-Ho Lee of the Korea Basic Science Institute, has developed a prodrug that is activated selectively in the diseased brain in Alzheimer’s disease and confirmed its therapeutic effects through animal experiments.
A prodrug is a drug that initially has minimal therapeutic effect but is converted into an active therapeutic agent only under specific conditions inside the body. In this study, the prodrug was designed to be activated only when it encounters hydrogen peroxide, which increases in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, allowing it to function as a “smart therapeutic agent” that selectively acts in diseased brain tissue.
In the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, hydrogen peroxide, which damages cells, is elevated above normal levels. Until now, it has generally been regarded only as a harmful substance that should be removed. However, the research team devised a method to use it instead as a signal that activates a drug.
The prodrugs developed by the research team, BE-1 and BE-2, are designed to remain minimally reactive in a healthy brain. However, when they encounter hydrogen peroxide in a brain affected by dementia, they are converted into active therapeutic compounds, AP-1 and AP-2. Through this process, they reduce reactive oxygen species, including hydrogen peroxide, while also preventing amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides — peptides known as a major cause of dementia that accumulate in the brain and damage nerve cells — from aggregating into highly toxic clumps.
Using advanced analytical techniques, the research team confirmed that the activated drug alters the morphology of amyloid beta aggregates and suppresses their growth into large aggregates.
These effects were also confirmed in Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. The drug crossed the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a protective barrier that controls whether substances in the blood can enter the brain, and was converted into the therapeutic compound inside the diseased brain. In mice that received long-term drug administration, oxidative stress in the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory, was reduced, and amyloid beta accumulation in the brain also decreased. In behavioral experiments assessing the ability to recognize new objects and navigate mazes, cognitive function was also found to improve.
This study is significant in that the drug was designed to operate only where needed by using the environment of the diseased brain itself. This approach presents a new strategy for dementia treatment that can enhance therapeutic efficacy while reducing side effects, and it is expected to be applicable to the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Professor Mi Hee Lim of KAIST’s Department of Chemistry said, “This study is meaningful in that hydrogen peroxide, which had previously been regarded only as something to be eliminated, was used as a signal to activate a drug. We expect this strategy, which activates drugs in diseased tissue, to become a new platform for treating complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease more safely and effectively.”
This study was co-first-authored by Jimin Lee and Eunseo Hong, Ph.D. candidates in KAIST’s Department of Chemistry, and was published online on May 31, 2026, in the international journal Small (Impact Factor: 12.1, top 10% in the field of chemistry).
※ Paper title: A Prodrug Approach for Activity-Based Chemical Modulation toward Multiple Pathological Targets in Alzheimer’s Disease
DOI: 10.1002/smll.74013
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Leader Researcher Program, Global Leading Research Center Program, Sejong Science Fellowship, Graduate Student Research Encouragement Program, and institutional programs of KRIBB and KBSI.
2026.07.03 View 6506 -
KAIST Develops Hydrogel Material with Improved Skin Adhesion and Controllable Degradation Rate
<(From Left) Researcher Han-Yeol Yang, Professor Haeshin Lee>
Could wound healing dressings adhere better, and drug delivery patches become more sophisticated? A KAIST research team has developed a technology that leverages natural ingredients derived from plants to increase the strength of seaweed-based hydrogel (a gel material that contains a large amount of water while maintaining its shape) by more than fivefold, while also controlling its adhesiveness and degradation rate.
KAIST announced on June 9th that a research team led by Professor Haeshin Lee from the Department of Chemistry has developed a new material design strategy that utilizes tannic acid—a type of polyphenol, which is a natural antioxidant abundant in tea and fruits—to enhance the mechanical strength and adhesiveness of seaweed-derived hydrogel and to control its degradation rate.
Hydrogel is a high-moisture gel material used in contact lenses, acne patches, mask packs, and wound healing dressings. Because it can adhere closely to the skin while holding drugs or active ingredients, it is being utilized in various bio and healthcare fields, such as drug delivery systems (materials that effectively deliver drugs to desired sites), wound dressings (medical dressings that protect wounds and aid healing), tissue engineering scaffolds (structures that help regenerate artificial tissue), and cosmetic materials.
Among various hydrogel materials, the research team focused on 'κ-Carrageenan'. κ-Carrageenan is a natural polymer extracted from red seaweed (rhodophytes) such as agar-agar, and it is a familiar food ingredient used to increase the viscosity and maintain the shape of jellies and sauces. However, there were limitations to improving the performance of hydrogels made with κ-Carrageenan. The κ-Carrageenan molecule contains many structures called sulfate groups, which create intermolecular repulsion—much like magnets of the same pole pushing each other away—and prevent the formation of a dense structure. For this reason, it was difficult to increase the strength and adhesiveness of the hydrogel or to adjust the degradation rate to a desired level.
To solve this problem, the research team focused on finding a natural substance that could effectively interact with the sulfate groups. As a result, they determined that tannic acid, a natural polyphenol abundant in tea and fruits, could be a promising candidate.
Polyphenols are natural ingredients produced by plants to protect themselves from external environments such as ultraviolet rays or pests, and they have the characteristic of being able to bind with multiple substances simultaneously. In particular, tannic acid has multiple binding sites (galloyl groups), so it was expected to interact strongly with the sulfate groups of κ-Carrageenan and connect the molecules together. The research team believed that this characteristic could be utilized to reinforce the hydrogel structure.
As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the sulfate group, which was previously considered a factor hindering hydrogel formation, actually acts as a core binding site with tannic acid. In other words, the structure that was previously considered a "weakness" played a role in making the hydrogel even firmer upon meeting tannic acid.
< Research Image Related to Polyphenol Interactions >
In fact, the storage modulus (an index representing the firmness and elasticity of a gel) of the κ-Carrageenan hydrogel with added tannic acid was approximately 1,632 Pa, showing an improvement of more than fivefold compared to the pure κ-Carrageenan hydrogel (approximately 294 Pa). This means that the hydrogel can maintain its shape more stably even under external pressure or deformation, demonstrating that it can increase the durability and usability of wound healing dressings or drug delivery patches.
In addition, the research team confirmed that tannic acid stably reinforces the internal network structure (gel network) of the already formed hydrogel, regardless of the point in time when the tannic acid is added. This implies that tannic acid connects molecules at multiple points, allowing the internal structure of the hydrogel to remain consistently firm.
Notably, the research team succeeded in implementing rapid degradability and strong adhesiveness simultaneously. In experiments simulating the human stomach and intestinal environments, the hydrogel containing tannic acid degraded relatively quickly while adhering strongly to the skin and rough surfaces. This means that wound healing dressings will not easily fall off during use but can naturally degrade after completing their role, and drug delivery patches can be utilized to stably deliver drugs for a desired period.
This study is meaningful in that it presented a design principle capable of simultaneously controlling the strength, adhesiveness, and degradation rate of hydrogel using only food-grade natural ingredients without complex chemical synthesis processes. The research team expects this technology to be utilized in various bio and healthcare fields, such as capsules and coating materials for food and functional foods, skin-adhering cosmetics and skincare products, wound dressings, drug delivery patches, and tissue engineering scaffolds.
<Research Image (AI-Generated)>
Professor Haeshin Lee said, "This study is an example showing that the mechanical strength, adhesiveness, and degradation behavior of hydrogel can be designed together using only naturally derived materials," adding, "It can be expanded into a safer and simpler natural polymer gel platform in the fields of food, cosmetics, and biomaterials."
This study, in which PhD student Han-Yeol Yang participated as the first author, was published on April 21st in 'Biomimetics', an international academic journal in the field of biomimetics. ※ Paper Title: Adhesive κ-Carrageenan Hydrogels by Polyphenol Intervention, DOI: 10.3390/biomimetics11040290
Meanwhile, this research was conducted with research funding support from Polyphenol Factory Inc., a faculty-led startup enterprise of KAIST.
2026.06.09 View 4643 -
KAIST Produces Eco-Friendly Core Nylon Precursors Used from Clothing to Automobiles with Microbes
<(From Left) Dr. Da-Hee Ahn, Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee>
Nylon is a representative plastic material used throughout our daily lives, from clothing to automobiles. However, most of its raw materials have been produced through petrochemical processes, resulting in large carbon emissions. KAIST researchers have developed a technology that can produce key nylon precursors in an eco-friendly way using microbes.
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 31st of May that a research team led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has developed an Escherichia coli-based modular platform capable of producing three key monomers (basic molecular units that make up polymers) of “nylon 6,6” and “nylon 6” — adipic acid, hexamethylenediamine, and epsilon-caprolactam — from “glycerol (an eco-friendly bio-based byproduct generated during biodiesel production),” a renewable carbon source, using systems metabolic engineering (a technology that designs and optimizes microbial metabolic pathways to maximize the production of desired substances).
“Nylon 6” is highly flexible and is used in clothing and films, while “nylon 6,6” has excellent strength and heat resistance and is used in automobiles and machinery parts. The numbers after the nylon name indicate the number of carbon atoms contained in the raw material molecules.
The core of this study is that the biosynthetic pathway was divided into upstream and downstream modules, with E. coli strains assigned different roles. The upstream strain was designed to produce adipic acid from glycerol, while the downstream strain was designed to convert it into hexamethylenediamine or epsilon-caprolactam, respectively. Through this, the research team succeeded in producing adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine, the key raw materials of nylon 6,6, and epsilon-caprolactam, the key raw material of nylon 6, within a single integrated platform.
To improve production efficiency, the researchers compared and validated various enzymes (proteins that promote chemical reactions in living organisms), including carboxylic acid reductases and transaminases, and applied the optimal combination, thereby improving hexamethylenediamine titer. In addition, in the epsilon-caprolactam production process, they designed a flexible-linker fusion enzyme that enhances reaction efficiency through efficient cofactor regeneration.In the upstream module, the team reconstructed the biosynthetic pathway (a series of reaction processes through which compounds are produced in living organisms) and improved the performance of key enzymes using artificial intelligence (AI), increasing production titer. As a result, they succeeded in producing adipic acid at a level of 6 grams per liter (g/L) in a fed-batch fermentation process.
The research team also applied a “delayed inoculation” strategy (time-staggered co-culture), in which the second strain is introduced later after sufficient adipic acid has first been produced, rather than adding the two types of E. coli simultaneously. This is a method of sequentially introducing microbes with different roles at different times.
When this strategy was applied to a fed-batch fermentation process (a fermentation method that increases productivity by supplying nutrients step by step), the team produced 230 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of hexamethylenediamine and 808 micrograms per liter (μg/L) of epsilon-caprolactam using only glycerol. Although the production amounts are not yet high, the research team explained that these results represent world-class performance among cases of direct production from glycerol.
<Schematic Diagram>
This technology is significant in that it presents the possibility of producing nylon raw materials, which have relied on petrochemical processes, through bio-based methods.
The research team plans to further improve titer by combining AI-based enzyme design with additional systems metabolic engineering, and to expand the platform to produce various polymer raw materials (substances formed by the repeated bonding of multiple monomers).
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee stated, “This study is meaningful in that it presents a modular microbial platform capable of producing key monomers required for nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 production from renewable carbon sources,” adding, “We will continue to advance enzyme and metabolic flux engineering to improve titer and develop this into a core platform for sustainably producing various bio-based polymer raw materials.”
The results of this study were published on May 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), with Dr. Da-Hee Ahn of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as the first author.
※ Paper title: “Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the biosynthesis of nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 monomers”
Authors: Sang Yup Lee (KAIST, corresponding author), Da-Hee Ahn (KAIST, first author), Tong Un Chae (KAIST, second author), total of 3 authors
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2535786123
This research was supported by the “Development of Platform Technologies of Microbial Cell Factories for the Next-Generation Biorefineries” project under the Petroleum Replacement Eco-Friendly Chemical Technology Development Program supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and by the “Development of Advanced Synthetic Biology Source Technologies for Leading the Biomanufacturing Industry” project under the Core Synthetic Biology Technology Development Program.
2026.06.01 View 3810 -
KAIST, Making Pharmaceuticals with Light and Air… Solving a Long-Standing Challenge in Chemical Synthesis
<(From Left) Professor Sang Woo Han, Researcher Jin Wook Baek>
In chemical processes for producing pharmaceuticals, catalysts are the key to determine production speed and cost. However, until now, there has been a trade-off between “precise but disposable catalysts” and “reusable catalysts.” A KAIST research team has developed an eco-friendly catalytic technology that combines these two types, operating with light and air. This opens a pathway to producing pharmaceutical ingredients more cheaply and cleanly, with expected reductions in carbon emissions and environmental pollution.
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 30th of March that a research team led by Professor Sang Woo Han of the Department of Chemistry has succeeded in combining two different types of catalysts into one system. One is a silver (Ag)-based catalyst that operates in a solid state, and the other is an organic photocatalyst, DDQ (a substance that triggers chemical reactions upon absorbing light), which operates in solution. By enabling these two catalysts to function together, the team made it possible to carry out previously difficult reactions more efficiently.
< Schematic diagram of the operation of a heterogeneous–homogeneous hybrid photocatalytic system >
Using this technology, the researchers successfully produced amines—key raw materials for pharmaceuticals—through an environmentally friendly process using light and air. This demonstrated that the desired substances can be synthesized without additional chemical reagents, proving the practicality of the technology.
Conventional organic photocatalysis required additional chemicals to reuse catalysts after reactions, or suffered from reduced efficiency due to slow reaction rates when using oxygen from air.
To address this, the research team proposed a method of reusing byproducts generated during the reaction. These byproducts restore the catalyst to a reusable state, while oxygen in the air helps sustain this cycle. In other words, instead of being used once and discarded, the catalyst regenerates itself and continues operating in a “cyclic system.”
As a result, they established a “cyclic catalytic system” that continues functioning without the need for additional chemical inputs. Notably, this system operates with light and air. Light activates the catalyst to initiate the reaction, while air restores the used catalyst to its active state. In essence, the catalyst continuously “recharges” and operates repeatedly. Since air leaves only water as a byproduct in this process, the environmental burden is significantly reduced.
In addition, to solve the issue of reduced performance when different catalysts interact, the team introduced lithium salt (LiClO₄). This substance helps regulate interactions between the two catalysts, significantly improving their stability and lifespan.
< A hybrid catalyst powered by light and air as energy sources >
Professor Sang Woo Han stated, “This research is the first to successfully integrate an inorganic photochemical loop system—where a metal-based catalyst reacts under light and returns to its original state—into the field of organic synthesis,” adding, “It represents an important advancement that combines the advantages of different catalytic systems to dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the chemical industry.” He further noted, “It opens a new pathway for producing high-value compounds, such as pharmaceutical ingredients, in the most environmentally friendly way.”
This research was conducted with Jin Wook Baek of the KAIST Department of Chemistry as the first author, and the results were published on March 18 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), a leading journal in chemistry.
※ Paper title: “Merger of heterogeneous and homogeneous photocatalysis for arene C–H Amination”
※ DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c20824
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Mid-career Researcher Program.
2026.03.30 View 3350