CR927 battery

New 3D printing technique makes CR927 battery

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from smartphones and tablets to electric cars. Until now, manufacturers have had to design their devices around standard battery sizes, and it has limited the design options and capacity of consumer devices. But researchers led by Christopher Reyes and Benjamin Wiley have developed a new 3D printing method that can be used to make lithium-ion batteries in almost any shape. They report their results in ACS Applied Energy Materials.

3D-printed lithium-ion batteries can already drive LEDs

Most lithium-ion batteries on the market are rectangular or cylindrical. In theory, 3D printing technology can print entire devices in almost any shape, including batteries, structures and electronic components. However, the problem that has hindered the full 3D printing of lithium-ion batteries is that the polymer used for 3D printing, PLA, is not an ion conductor. The researchers wanted to find a way to print complete lithium-ion batteries using a low-cost and widely available fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printer. 3D printing of arbitrary-shaped batteries will change the limitations of current product design

To improve the ionic conductivity of PLA, the researchers injected the PLA used for 3D printing into an electrolyte solution. In addition, they incorporated graphene or multi-walled carbon nanotubes into the anode or cathode, respectively, to help improve the conductivity of the battery.

To demonstrate the potential of the battery, the researchers 3D printed an LED bracelet with an integrated lithium-ion battery. And the bracelet battery can power a green LED for about 60 seconds.

The team noted that the capacity of the first generation of 3D printed batteries is about two orders of magnitude lower than commercial batteries. Future work may include developing methods to increase the capacity of 3D printed batteries, such as "replacing polymer-based anode and cathode materials with 3D printable slurries that can accommodate high loadings of active materials and can be printed in tandem with a polymer separator. Using alternative nanomaterials such as reduced graphene oxide could potentially serve as both conductive fillers and active materials, eliminating the need for inactive conductive materials and low conductivity active materials. Alternatively, encapsulating active materials, such as LTO and LMO, with conductive fillers prior to mixing in the polymer could improve electrical contact when the active materials are present in low concentrations in the polymer. These results should aid those seeking to create energy storage materials and devices that can 3D print batteries in arbitrary shapes."

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