Prof. Won-Jin Kwak 

Assistant professor in School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

Address: Battery R&D Center (Bldg. 111 Rm. 401-1), 50 UNIST-gil, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea

Tel: +82-52-217-3038

Email: wjkwak@unist.ac.kr

ORCID: 0000-0002-9807-1434

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.kr/citations?user=I0lRS4MAAAAJ&hl=ko

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/won-jin-kwak-240618183/

CRIC's People: https://www.nric.or.kr/board/boardView/5613.do


Experience

•Assistant Professor, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST, Republic of Korea (2023 - Present)​
•Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry & Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Republic of Korea (2020 - 2023)​

•Postdoctoral Research Associate (Advisor: Dr. Jason Zhang & Dr. Wu Xu), PNNL, United States (2019-2020)

•Postdoctoral Fellow (Advisor: Prof. Yang-Kook Sun), ESCML, Hanyang University, Republic of Korea (2018-2019)


Education​

•Ph.D. Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea (Feb 2018)

Department of Energy Engineering

Thesis title: Lithium halides as redox mediators for lithium oxygen batteries
(Advisor: Prof. Yang-Kook Sun)

•B.S. Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea (Feb 2012)

Department of Chemical Engineering

Research Interest

• Next Generation Batteries   • Electrolyte Design   • Battery Recycling   


Selected Publication
•Hyun-Wook Lee†, Ji-Hee Lee†, Hyokyeong Kang†, Ja-Yeong Kim, Ji-Su Woo, Kansara S. Dineshbhai, Jang-Yeon Hwang*, Won-Jin Kwak*. "Suppression of Potasside Reaction in Localized High Concentration Electrolytes Utilizing Fluorine-Substituted Benzene as Bifunctional Additive for Potassium-Metal Batteries" Energy Storage Mater., 70, 103448 (2024)

•Hyun-Wook Lee†, Youngoh Kim†, Joo-Eun Kim, Ja-Yeong Kim, Jae-Yeon Jang, Joonmyung Choi*, Won-Jin Kwak*. "Diluents Effect on Inhibiting Dissolution of Organic Electrode for Highly Reversible Li-ion Batteries" Adv. Energy Mater., 14, 2303033 (2023)
•Joo-Eun Kim, Hyun-Wook Lee, Won-Jin Kwak*. "Acceleration of Singlet Oxygen Evolution by Superoxide Dismutase Mimetics in Lithium–Oxygen Batteries." Adv. Funct. Mater., 32, 2209012 (2022).
•Ji-Su Woo, Hyun-Wook Lee, Ji-Hee Lee, Seung-Hun Han, Won-Jin Kwak*. "Liquid metal arene complex for next-generation batteries." Mater. Today Energy., 30, 101156 (2022).

•Hyun-Wook Lee†, Hun Kim†, Hun-Gi Jung, Yang-Kook Sun*, Won-Jin Kwak*. "Ambilaterality of RM towards 1O2 in Li-O2 batteries: trap and quencher." Adv. Funct. Mater., 31, 2102442 (2021).

•Won-Jin Kwak†, Rosy† , Daniel Sharon, Chun Xia, Hun Kim, Lee R. Johnson, Peter G. Bruce*, Linda F. Nazar*, Yang-Kook Sun*, Aryeh A. Frimer, Malachi Noked, Stefan A. Freunberger, Doron Aurbach*. "Lithium-Oxygen Batteries and Related Systems: Potential, Status and Future." Chem. Rev., 120, 6626 (2020).

•Won-Jin Kwak, Sujong Chae, Ruozhu Feng, Peiyuan Gao, Jeffrey Read, Mark H. Engelhard, Lirong Zhong, Wu Xu*, Ji-Guang Zhang*. "Optimized Electrolyte with High Electrochemical Stability and Oxygen Solubility for Lithium-Oxygen and Lithium-Air Batteries." ACS Energy Lett., 5, 2182-2190 (2020).
•Won-Jin Kwak, Hun Kim, Trung Thien Nguyen, Yann K. Petit, Nika Mahne, Christian Leypold, Paul Redfern, Larry A. Curtiss, Hun-Gi Jung, Sergey M. Borisov, Stefan A. Freunberger*, Yang-Kook Sun*. "Deactivation of redox mediators in lithium-oxygen batteries by singlet oxygen." Nat. Commun., 10, 1380 (2019).


Honors & Awards 

- 2023 한국전기화학회 이차전지 신진연구자 선정

- 2021-2023 아주대학교 연구 우수 교수 선정
- 2021 아주대학교 교육 우수 교수 선정

- 2020 포스코 청암재단 사이언스 펠로십 선정 (에너지소재)
- 2020 아주대학교 최우수 신임교원 선정 (S rank)

- 2018-2019 제 1, 2회 한양대학교 우수연구자 연속 선정


Professional Activities

- 2022~Present 한국전기화학회 이차전지분과 실무위원

- 2022~Present 한국전지학회 학술이사

- 2024~Present 한국공업화학회 전기화학분과회 학술기획간사

Peer Reviewer (alphabetical order)

• ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Omega, Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Applied Surface Science, ChemElectroChem, Electrochemistry Communications, Electrochimica Acta, International Journal of Energy Research, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Power Sources, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Journal of the Korean Battery Society, Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, Nano Energy, National Science Review, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Materials Today Energy, Sustainable Energy & Fuels, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Trend in Chemistry