South Korean Team Unveils World’s First All-Carbon Electric Motor

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have developed the world’s first fully functional electric motor constructed without any metal components. 

Instead of heavy copper windings, the motor uses carbon nanotube (CNT) coils, representing a major advance for ultra-lightweight transport systems.

The design delivers a 133% improvement in electrical conductivity while being 80% lighter than a conventional copper-wound motor. These gains could prove transformative for applications ranging from electric vehicles and drones to spacecraft, where every kilogram saved extends operational range.

“Whether it’s electric vehicles, drones, or spacecraft, a common technical challenge for future transportation is lightweighting. Reducing the weight of a vehicle not only reduces energy consumption, but also increases battery efficiency and increases range,” the research team said in a press release.

Built by the team at KIST, the motor has already demonstrated practical capability. In laboratory tests, it powered a small toy car to speeds exceeding half a metre per second, confirming that CNT coils can sustain continuous operation under load.

“By developing a new concept of CNT high-quality technology that has never existed before, we were able to maximize the electrical performance of CNT coils to drive electric motors without metal,” explained lead researcher at KIST, Dr Dae-Yoon Kim.

Carbon nanotubes are one-dimensional, tube-shaped nanomaterials composed of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Their combination of low density (1.7 g/cm³), exceptional electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and thermal conductivity makes them an attractive alternative to copper, which has a density of 8.9 g/cm³.

A longstanding barrier to CNT adoption has been the removal of metal catalyst residues, which impair conductivity. The KIST team overcame this through a purification technique dubbed the LAST (Lyotropic Liquid Crystal-Assisted Surface Texturing) process. 

Nanotubes are dissolved in chlorosulfonic acid to form a liquid-crystal phase, aligning the tubes. Upon exposure to water, hydrochloric acid generated in situ dissolves embedded iron catalyst particles, leaving the CNTs intact. This reduced metal contamination from 12.7% to below 0.8%.

After purification, CNT cables achieved an electrical conductivity of 7.7 MS/m. When integrated into the motor, the specific rotational velocity was only 6% lower than that of an equivalent copper-based design, while continuous operation for 60 minutes under varying power loads demonstrated robust performance.

To highlight real-world potential, the team built a scale model car powered by the metal-free motor. On an asphalt test track, the vehicle covered 10 metres in 25 seconds. The CNT wiring weighed just 78.75 mg compared to 379.08 mg for the copper equivalent, showing an 80% reduction in coil mass.

“Based on the innovation of CNT materials, we will take the lead in localising materials such as conductive materials for batteries, pellicles for semiconductors, and cables for robots,” Dr Kim concluded.

This breakthrough paves the way for lighter, more efficient electric motors across transport and industrial sectors, bringing the vision of metal-free propulsion systems one step closer to reality.

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