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

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Germany), 2023-12, Vol.19 (50), p.e2302718-n/a
• Main Authors: Fonseca, Nathan, Thummalapalli, Sri Vaishnavi, Jambhulkar, Sayli, Ravichandran, Dharneedar, Zhu, Yuxiang, Patil, Dhanush, Thippanna, Varunkumar, Ramanathan, Arunachalam, Xu, Weiheng, Guo, Shenghan, Ko, Hyunwoong, Fagade, Mofe, Kannan, Arunchala M., Nian, Qiong, Asadi, Amir, Miquelard‐Garnier, Guillaume, Dmochowska, Anna, Hassan, Mohammad K., Al‐Ejji, Maryam, El‐Dessouky, Hassan M., Stan, Felicia, Song, Kenan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3-D printers; 3D printing; Artificial intelligence; Avionics; batteries; Chemical and Process Engineering; Co-design; Data analysis; Electric power; Electric vehicles; electrodes; Electrolytes; Electronics; Energy storage; Engineering Sciences; hierarchies; Lithium-ion batteries; Machine learning; Manufacturing; Mechanics; Mechanics of materials; Medical devices; Medical equipment; Micro and nanotechnologies; Microelectronics; Molten salt electrolytes; multimaterials; Nanotechnology; Production costs; Production methods; Solid electrolytes; Three dimensional printing
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202302718

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. This review article examines the advancements and challenges in 3D printing for battery design and manufacturing. It discusses the potential of 3D printing technologies in improving battery performance, design flexibility, and customization. The article also addresses the current limitations and suggests future directions for research and development in the field.