New method for 3D printing wearable battery technology developed

Flexible wearable battery technology could be produced easily and affordably using a new 3D printing method, according to UK research.

A team from Brunel University London have created a means of printing layers of silicone, glue and gel electrolyte pastes into a wristband-like device that contains a supercapacitor, allowing it to store energy like a battery.

The wristband can be produced using the kind of cheap components purchased from a standard hardware shop, rather than requiring sophisticated expensive metals or semiconductors. Moreover, it has been shown to withstand stress tests without losing power.

It is thought that this method could be used to create super-efficient, wearable and cheap power sources for smartphones, electric cars and medical implants such as pacemakers, among other applications.

Milad Areir at Brunel's cleaner electronics research group said: "This is the first time a flexible supercapacitor including all its components has been produced by 3D printing. The most popular way to produce them is screen printing, but with that you can't print the frame of the supercapacitor on silicone."

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