The advent and increased availability of 3D printing is leading to more customizable parts at lower costs across a spectrum of applications, from wearable smart devices to autonomous vehicles. Now, a research team has 3D printed a proton exchange membrane, a critical component of batteries, electrochemical capacitors and fuel cells. The achievement also brings the possibility of custom solid-state energy devices closer to reality, according to the researchers.
The results were published on March 29 in ACS Applied Energy Materials, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
"Energy storage devices whose shapes can be tailored enable entirely new possibilities for applications related, for example, to smart wearable, electronic medical devices, and electronic appliances such as drones," said Kazuyuki Iwase, paper author and assistant professor in professor Itaru Honma's group at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials at Tohoku University. "3D printing is a technology that enables the realization of such on-demand structures."
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