Beijing, April 25, 2026 – A research team led by Researcher Lu Lei from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR CAS), has made a major breakthrough in copper material technology, successfully developing a "super copper foil" that combines ultra-high strength, high conductivity and excellent thermal stability. This innovative material, with a tensile strength of up to 900MPa, has broken the long-standing "impossible triangle" of strength, conductivity and thermal stability in copper foil, bringing new possibilities for the upgrading of the energy storage industry.
Copper has high strength and toughness, withstanding external impact and vibration. Unlike low-strength materials, it avoids loosening or breaking, ensuring stable system operation. The newly developed super copper foil takes these advantages to a new level, thanks to its unique "gradient ordered nano-domain" microstructure design.
The core innovation of the super copper foil lies in the microstructural design: the research team formed high-density nano-domains with an average size of only 3 nanometers on a 10-micron thick high-purity copper foil substrate through industrial-compatible electrolytic deposition technology. These nano-domains are distributed in a periodic gradient along the thickness direction of the copper foil, like a "nano steel mesh" inside the material, which effectively enhances the strength while ensuring excellent conductivity.
Test data show that the tensile strength of the super copper foil reaches 900MPa, which is 1.5 to 2 times that of ordinary industrial copper foil (300-600MPa). At the same time, its electrical conductivity remains at 90% IACS, which is about twice that of traditional copper alloys with the same strength. More importantly, the material shows excellent thermal stability-its performance remains almost unchanged after being placed at room temperature for 180 days, completely solving the problem of performance attenuation of high-strength copper materials due to self-annealing.
For the energy storage industry, which has strict requirements on material reliability, the super copper foil's outstanding mechanical properties and stability have obvious application advantages. Copper has high strength and toughness, withstanding external impact and vibration. Unlike low-strength materials, it avoids loosening or breaking, ensuring stable system operation. This feature is particularly critical for energy storage systems that need to operate stably for a long time, as it can effectively resist the mechanical stress caused by transportation, installation and daily operation, and avoid safety hazards such as terminal loosening, breakage and overheating caused by material failure.
In addition to its excellent mechanical properties, the super copper foil also has broad industrial application prospects. It can be widely used in energy storage battery current collectors, battery terminals, copper busbars and other key components, helping to improve the energy density, charging efficiency and safety of energy storage systems. It is worth mentioning that the material has realized continuous industrial production capacity, laying a solid foundation for its large-scale application in the energy storage field.
Industry experts pointed out that the birth of the super copper foil not only provides a new design idea for the preparation of high-performance copper materials, but also injects strong impetus into the high-quality development of the global energy storage industry. As a key material connecting the upstream and downstream of the energy storage industry chain, the popularization and application of super copper foil will further promote the upgrading of energy storage equipment and help the global energy transition process.
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