Inkjet and Aerosol Jet Printing of Electrochemical Devices for Energy Conversion and Storage

• Published in: Advanced engineering materials Vol. 19; no. 7
• Main Authors: Deiner, L. Jay, Reitz, Thomas L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.07.2017
• ISSN: 1438-1656; 1527-2648
• DOI: 10.1002/adem.201600878

Inkjet and aerosol jet printing have recently emerged as promising fabrication techniques for a broad range of devices for electrochemical energy conversion and storage – batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors. If fully realized, these printing techniques may enable device performance advantages accruing from precise micron scale patterning, thin layer deposition, and materials grading. Printing may also allow scalable, low materials waste manufacturing, and conformal integration of power elements into structural elements. This article reviews the fundamental capabilities of inkjet and aerosol jet printing relevant to electrochemical devices, surveys current literature, and presents future challenges which must be tackled to achieve high performance, printed electrochemical energy storage, and conversion devices. Inkjet and aerosol jet printing are emerging methods for the fabrication of batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors. These direct‐write methods show particular promise because they enable low cost, conformal deposition of materials within the lengthscales that are important for electrochemical device performance improvement and structural integration. At the macroscale, inkjet and aerosol jet printing allow for maskless deposition on a range of substrates. At the mesoscale, they facilitate functional grading at and beyond electrode/electrolyte interfaces. At the microscale, they permit thin layer deposition and extension of the electrode/electrolyte interfacial area.