Toward single-step production of functional electrochemical devices using 3D printing: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Sensors and devices that incorporate 3D printed components have gained significant attention because they are easily customized and rapidly prototyped, can produce devices with increasingly complex geometries that are impossible to make using traditional techniques, and can produce high-quality analytical sensors and energy storage devices using inexpensive components. One additional advantage of 3D printing is that a designer can send the design file of a functioning device anywhere in the world over the internet, and the device can be printed at the point of use. This potentially makes 3D printing a viable option for producing low-cost devices for sensing applications in low-resource and difficult to reach environments. Here, we review recent examples where 3D-printing has been used to fabricate ready-to-use electrochemical systems and highlight challenges and opportunities for future development. We place special emphasis on electrochemical systems for energy storage and chemical sensing.