3D-Printed Graphene Batteries Are a Step Towards Printing Gadgets

3D printing and graphene are two engineering buzzwords that seem to be at a similar stage in fulfilling their technological promises: They're both really cool, but they're both not quite at the point of making complex devices just yet.

New York company 3D Graphene Lab has suggested one way of taking both to the next level: combine them. The company recently demonstrated its 3D-printed battery—a functional battery made with a filament containing graphene. The big idea: If you can 3D print a battery, you've gotten a lot closer to printing a whole working device, electronics included, rather than just the shell.

"The mission of our company is the development of materials for 3D printers," company CEO Daniel Stolyarov told me in a phone call."For us [the battery] was a demonstration of our approach."

The battery idea is just one suggestion of where materials with different qualities could steer 3D printing next, once our mantelpieces are spilling over with decorative models and much-loved mistakes. From metal to concrete, various printers are able to spurt out more and more materials, but actual working parts are another thing. A 3D-printed laptop is actually just a 3D-printed case with a bunch of electronics inside.

To make the battery, Stolyarov and his team first made a conductive filament. Graphene, being the super-conductive and strong 2D wonder material it is, was an obvious addition to the composite. In a video showing the process, the team explains they mixed graphene nanoplatelets with the kind of thermoplastic you'd usually use in 3D printing. And there you have it: conductive filament.

Currently, they have to separately print an anode, cathode, and electrolyte and assemble them together, as they're made of different materials. But as multimaterial printers are developed—and 3D Graphene Lab are also developing their own printer capable of printing more than one at once—it could soon be possible to print something similar in one go.

It's not the first time someone's tried to print a battery. Last year, Harvard researchers 3D printed a tiny lithium-ion microbattery out of specially designed "inks." But that required a custom printer.

Stolyarov, on the other hand, said a main challenge for him was to make sure the graphene filament still acted like the ABS or PLA filament you'd usually print, so any open source printer could potentially make use of it. "It doesn't require a special printer; it doesn't even require a very expensive printer," he said. "For us it's proof of our ability to modify materials to make new functional materials for already-existing printing technology."

Admittedly, the prototype battery looks a bit chunky and unpolished and generally DIY maker-ish, but the company is working to improve it. Stolyarov told me they're developing a lithium ion battery, which would be rechargeable (the current prototype is not).

But as well as being a cool bit of 3D printing, it's a refreshingly solid application of graphene. We've been promised many futuristic graphene devices, from condoms to contact lenses, but they've remained elusive glimpses of what could one day be. Seeing an actual thing that uses graphene, and that could be available for makers to tinker with themselves soon, is quite exciting.

"If the goal is to build a printer than can print everything, then you need to combine many different materials," Stolyarov said of his big picture, and suggested a cell phone as a potential future 3D printing project.

A 3D printer capable of such would be cool for hobbyists, but could also be desirable for industry. "The advantage compared to other manufacturing methods if things are made this way: there is no need for assembly," he added. "And assembly is a big portion of the expense in making things." Strike that one up as another win for the robot workforce.