A fluid battery that can take any shape

"The material can, for instance, be used in a 3D printer to shape the battery as you please. This opens up for a new type of technology"

16-Apr-2025 - Using electrodes in a fluid form, researchers at Linköping University have developed a battery that can take any shape. This soft and conformable battery can be integrated into future technology in a completely new way. Their study has been published in the journal Science Advances. “The texture ...

3D-printed open-source robot offers accessible solution for materials synthesis

Practical, cost-effective solution for accelerating innovation in materials science

14-Apr-2025 - FLUID, an open-source, 3D-printed robot, offers an affordable and customizable solution for automated material synthesis, making advanced research accessible to more scientists. A team of researchers led by Professor Keisuke Takahashi at the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, have created ...

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

07-Apr-2025 - From seat cushions to mattresses to insulation, foam is everywhere — even if we don’t always see it. Now, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have fused chemistry with technology to create a 3D-printed foam that is more durable and more recyclable than the polymer foam found in many ...

Improved Recycling of Plastic from Packaging Waste

Recycled plastic used in filaments for 3D printing

01-Apr-2025 - Every year, some 5.6 million metric tons of plastic packaging winds up in household waste in Germany after being used just once. So far, less than a third of it can be recycled. Working in partnership with Hochschule Bremen — City University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Institute for ...

Recyclable Plastic for the Printer

Polythioenones: a step toward a circular economy for synthetic polymers

17-Feb-2025 - The possibilities for material design and production of plastic components are being expanded through 3D printing technology. However, there is a shortage of recyclable polymers that meet the performance requirements. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has introduced a new class of ...

Electric fungi: The biobattery that needs to be fed

Microbiology meets electrical engineering

10-Jan-2025 - A battery that needs feeding instead of charging? This is exactly what Empa researchers have achieved with their 3D-printed, biodegradable fungal battery. The living battery could supply power to sensors for agriculture or research in remote regions. Once the work is done, it digests itself from ...

3D printer as a reactor for new materials

Chemist Katharina Ehrmann receives the Dr. Ernst Fehrer Prize

05-Dec-2024 - 3D printers are nothing unusual any more. Today, almost any geometric shape can be designed on a computer and then transformed into real objects using a 3D printer. But Katharina Ehrmann from the Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry at TU Wien goes one step further: she can adapt not only the ...

The ideal 3D printing setting for innovative gloves

A robust yet flexible glove coating

10-Sep-2024 - Protective gloves, such as those used for work, sport or household gardening, retrieve their protective function from a special coating. This coating provides abrasion resistance, makes the material waterproof and resistant to chemicals or oil, and even protects against cuts and punctures. Until ...

Sustainable and reversible 3D printing method uses minimal ingredients and steps

The work has the potential to make materials manufacturing more sustainable and environmentally friendly

05-Aug-2024 - A new 3D printing method developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego is so simple that it uses a polymer ink and salt water solution to create solid structures. The work, published in Nature Communications, has the potential to make materials manufacturing more sustainable ...

Multimaterial 3D Nanoprinter Enables Breakthrough in Parallel Synthesis

DECHEMA Prize & DFG Heisenberg Grant for Felix Löffler

31-Jul-2024 - Dr. Felix Löffler takes chemical synthesis out of flasks and beakers and replaces liquid solvents with solid polymer inks in a 3D multimaterial nanoprinter of his own invention. A laser beam precisely transfers nanometric amounts of chemical compounds onto an acceptor surface, where thousands of ...