Message from the Director

As we move towards a decarbonized society, demand for large storage batteries is increasing in order to enable the efficient use of renewable energy. Lithium-ion batteries, for which the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded, were put to practical use in Japan, and, due to their light weight and high energy density, they are widely used as a power source for small portable devices such as video cameras, cell phones, and laptop computers. They are also used as large storage batteries for electric vehicle power sources and stationary power sources for homes, and their applications are expanding. While lithium-ion batteries use organic liquid-state electrolytes, all-solid-state batteries use inorganic solid electrolytes which are flame retardant and non-fluid, thus offering safe and long-life batteries that can operate over a wide temperature range.

Due to such features, research and development on the practical application of all-solid-state batteries are currently being actively conducted around the world. In order to realize such batteries, it is necessary to efficiently advance wide-ranging research from fundamentals to applications, including the development of new materials and advanced analysis of their physical properties and structures, the construction of solid-solid interface formation processes, and the elucidation of all-solid-state battery mechanisms.

Osaka Metropolitan University has a large number of researchers involved in all-solid-state battery research and is in a position to lead the field worldwide. In the past, our researchers focused on their own specialized fields separately across multiple graduate schools, but based on the belief that research can be more effective by bringing together these researchers to work in collaboration and combining their individual strengths, we established the All-Solid-State Battery Research Center in August 2020.

In April 2023, the Center was accredited by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as Japan’s first Joint Usage / Research Center focusing on academic research for all-solid-state batteries (Collaborative Research Project of All-Solid-State Batteries in Osaka Metropolitan University). In addition to this academic research foundation, members of the Center have also established the All-Solid-State Battery Forum, and have been working to build a foundation for industry-academia collaborative research through personnel exchanges with participating companies.

The All-Solid-State Battery Research Center aims to be an innovation center for all-solid-state batteries, based on a philosophy of contributing to the promotion of research through industry-academia collaboration and the development of high-caliber research personnel to facilitate the practical application of all-solid-state batteries in society.

HAYASHI Akitoshi
Director
All-Solid-State Battery Research Center
Osaka Metropolitan University