Novel rechargeable 3D-Microbatteries on 3D-printed-polymer substrates: Feasibility study

Exploring role of microbatteries in enhancing sustainability and functionality of implantable biosensors and bioelectronics

Microbatteries are emerging as a sustainable, miniaturized power source, crucial for implantable biomedical devices. Their significance lies in offering high energy density, longevity, and rechargeability, facilitating uninterrupted health monitoring and treatment within the body. The review delves into the development of microbatteries, emphasizing their miniaturization and biocompatibility, crucial for long-term, safe in-vivo use. It examines cutting-edge manufacturing techniques like physical and chemical vapor deposition, and atomic layer deposition, essential for the precision manufacture of the microbatteries. The paper contrasts primary and secondary batteries, highlighting the advantages of zinc-ion and magnesium-ion batteries for enhanced stability and reduced reactivity. It also explores biodegradable batteries, potentially obviating the need for surgical extraction post-use. The integration of microbatteries into diagnostic and therapeutic devices is also discussed, illustrating how they enhance the efficacy and sustainability of implantable biosensors and bioelectronics.

The status and challenging perspectives of 3D-printed micro-batteries

In the era of the Internet of Things and wearable electronics, 3D-printed micro-batteries with miniaturization, aesthetic diversity and high aspect ratio, have emerged as a recent innovation that solves the problems of limited design diversity, poor flexibility and low mass loading of materials associated with traditional power sources restricted by the slurry-casting method. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the rational design of 3D-printed materials, inks, methods, configurations and systems is critical to optimize the electrochemical performance of customizable 3D-printed micro-batteries. In this review, we offer a key overview and systematic discussion on 3D-printed micro-batteries, emphasizing the close relationship between printable materials and printing technology, as well as the reasonable design of inks. Initially, we compare the distinct characteristics of various printing technologies, and subsequently emphatically expound the printable components of micro-batteries and general approaches to prepare printable inks. After that, we focus on the outstanding role played by 3D printing design in the device architecture, battery configuration, performance improvement, and system integration. Finally, the future challenges and perspectives concerning high-performance 3D-printed micro-batteries are adequately highlighted and discussed. This comprehensive discussion aims at providing a blueprint for the design and construction of next-generation 3D-printed micro-batteries.

Direct Ink Writing 3D Printing for High-Performance Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices: A Minireview

Despite tremendous efforts that have been dedicated to high-performance electrochemical energy storage devices (EESDs), traditional electrode fabrication processes still face the daunting challenge of limited energy/power density or compromised mechanical compliance. 3D thick electrodes can maximize the utilization of z-axis space to enhance the energy density of EESDs but still suffer from limitations in terms of poor mechanical stability and sluggish electron/ion transport. Direct ink writing (DIW), an eminent branch of 3D printing technology, has gained popularity in the manufacture of 3D electrodes with intricately designed architectures and rationally regulated porosity, promoting a triple boost in areal mass loading, ion diffusion kinetics, and mechanical flexibility. This focus review highlights the fundamentals of printable inks and typical configurations of 3D-printed devices. In particular, preparation strategies for high-performance and multifunctional 3D-printed EESDs are systemically discussed and classified according to performance evaluation metrics such as high areal energy density, high power density, high volumetric energy density, and mechanical flexibility. Challenges and prospects for the fabrication of high-performance 3D-printed EESDs are outlined, aiming to provide valuable insights into this thriving field.

3D Printing-Enabled Design and Manufacturing Strategies for Batteries: A Review

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have significantly impacted the daily lives, finding broad applications in various industries such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, medical devices, aerospace, and power tools. However, they still face issues (i.e., safety due to dendrite propagation, manufacturing cost, random porosities, and basic & planar geometries) that hinder their widespread applications as the demand for LIBs rapidly increases in all sectors due to their high energy and power density values compared to other batteries. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising technique for creating precise and programmable structures in energy storage devices. This review first summarizes light, filament, powder, and jetting-based 3D printing methods with the status on current trends and limitations for each AM technology. The paper also delves into 3D printing-enabled electrodes (both anodes and cathodes) and solid-state electrolytes for LIBs, emphasizing the current state-of-the-art materials, manufacturing methods, and properties/performance. Additionally, the current challenges in the AM for electrochemical energy storage (EES) applications, including limited materials, low processing precision, codesign/comanufacturing concepts for complete battery printing, machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI) for processing optimization and data analysis, environmental risks, and the potential of 4D printing in advanced battery applications, are also presented.

Smart Manufacturing Processes of Low-Tortuous Structures for High-Rate Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices

To maximize the performance of energy storage systems more effectively, modern batteries/supercapacitors not only require high energy density but also need to be fully recharged within a short time or capable of high-power discharge for electric vehicles and power applications. Thus, how to improve the rate capability of batteries or supercapacitors is a very important direction of research and engineering. Making low-tortuous structures is an efficient means to boost power density without replacing materials or sacrificing energy density. In recent years, numerous manufacturing methods have been developed to prepare low-tortuous configurations for fast ion transportation, leading to impressive high-rate electrochemical performance. This review paper summarizes several smart manufacturing processes for making well-aligned 3D microstructures for batteries and supercapacitors. These techniques can also be adopted in other advanced fields that require sophisticated structural control to achieve superior properties.

Recent advances and perspectives of 3D printed micro-supercapacitors: from design to smart integrated devices

3D-printed micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) have emerged as the ideal candidates for energy storage devices owing to their unique characteristics of miniaturization, structural diversity, and integration. Exploring the 3D printing technology for various materials and architectures of MSCs is key to realizing customization and optimizing the performance of 3D-printed MSCs. In this review, we summarize the latest progress in 3D-printed MSCs with regards to general printing approaches, printable materials, and rational design considerations. Specifically, several general types of 3D printing techniques (their working principles, available materials, resolutions, advantages, and disadvantages) and their applications to fabricate electrodes with different energy storage mechanisms, and various electrolytes, are summarized. We further discuss research directions in terms of integrated systems with other electronics. Finally, future perspectives on the research and development directions in this important field are further discussed.

Cathode Architectures for Rechargeable Ion Batteries: Progress and Perspectives

To satisfy the rising demand for energy, battery electrodes with higher loading, to simultaneously increase areal energy and power, are necessary. Nevertheless, in conventional thin-film electrodes, there is mutual exclusion between energy (capacity) and power. Increasing the thickness of electrodes alone is not feasible since this will lead to reductions in ion-diffusion efficiency, as well as electrode flexibility. To address this difficulty, 3D electrode architectures, especially cathode architectures, are proposed to pave a new path for the design and optimization of battery devices. Recent research suggests that 3D cathode architectures may optimize the configuration and engineering processes of battery technologies. Herein, the state-of-the-art progress of cathode architectures in various rechargeable-ion-battery technologies is summarized. Emphasis is placed on the different architecture strategies, areal loading, and mechanical understanding of 3D electrodes. Upcoming research directions are further outlined for future development in this field.

Evolution of 3D Printing Methods and Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage

Additive manufacturing has revolutionized the building of materials, and 3D-printing has become a useful tool for complex electrode assembly for batteries and supercapacitors. The field initially grew from extrusion-based methods and quickly evolved to photopolymerization printing, while supercapacitor technologies less sensitive to solvents more often involved material jetting processes. The need to develop higher-resolution multimaterial printers is borne out in the performance data of recent 3D printed electrochemical energy storage devices. Underpinning every part of a 3D-printable battery are the printing method and the feed material. These influence material purity, printing fidelity, accuracy, complexity, and the ability to form conductive, ceramic, or solvent-stable materials. The future of 3D-printable batteries and electrochemical energy storage devices is reliant on materials and printing methods that are co-operatively informed by device design. Herein, the material and method requirements in 3D-printable batteries and supercapacitors are addressed and requirements for the future of the field are outlined by linking existing performance limitations to requirements for printable energy-storage materials, casings, and direct printing of electrodes and electrolytes. A guide to materials and printing method choice best suited for alternative-form-factor energy-storage devices to be designed and integrated into the devices they power is thus provided.